Powers of arrest

sir – The sub judice rule does not inhibit us from thinking about and discussing the powers Parliament has vested in the police.

In order to arrest 10 people, the police need a reasonable belief that each is guilty of the stated arrestable offence. (It is vanishingly unlikely that all 10 will be guilty even if peripheral offences are added in.) The power of arrest certainly does not extend to a pool from which offenders might emerge.

There is no power – however much the police would like one – to arrest those among whom there may be prosecution witnesses.

Finally, our justice system takes fierce pride in extending the full protection of the law to travellers. Peter R Douglas-jones

Swansea