MPs call for greater police powers to reveal identities of ‘vicious’ hunt saboteurs

A GROUP of MPs are calling for the police to be given more powers to force violent hunt saboteurs who try to hide their identity to remove their masks.

At the moment, officers can only legally ask protesters to remove their face coverings if they have prior written permission from a senior officer.

While this is possible when policing planned demonstrations or events like football matches, the nature of hunt saboteur activities often means officers have no idea when they are going to take place.

This means officers are often powerless to identify people who are suspected of involvement in violent activities or criminal behaviour.

The MPs are seeking to introduce an amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill which will make it easier to unmask potentially violent protestors at spontaneous events in the countryside. Po- lice and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables insist they remain happy with the law as it stands and do not feel it requires amending.

A Freedom of Information request carried out by the Countryside Alliance revealed that officers had only been successful in using the current powers once in relation to a hunt saboteur incident in the last three years.

This compared to at least 10 occasions where political protestors or football supporters were involved.

Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “In the past three years there have been a number of cases where hunt staff and supporters have been viciously attacked by animal rights activists wearing balaclavas, but no one has ever been brought to justice for these crimes.

“Extremists know that wearing face coverings masks their identities and makes prosecution unlikely and also that it intimidates those who they are protesting against. Yet the powers to remove face coverings have been used more often at football matches than they have at hunts.

“It is simply ridiculous that police officers at the scene of potentially violent disruption cannot order people to remove face coverings and identify themselves without the written permission of a senior officer.

“Individual police officers on the ground must have the authority to order the removal of face coverings exactly as they have the power of arrest.”

The amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill has been tabled by Tory MP and former Solicitor General, Sir Edward Garnier.

It states that a constable in uniform should be entitled to require someone to remove items, such as face coverings and balaclavas, where these are used “wholly or mainly for the purpose of concealing identity” and where they reasonably believe that an offence “has been, or is being, committed”.