We always want to be able to trust the police. Often, we can. But problems like this are emerging more and more frequently:
Ken Hinds is set to receive an apology and £22,000 in compensation from the British Transport Police after being charged and spending four hours in a police cell after witnessing a black teenager being arrested.
The 50-year-old, who regularly liaises with police in his work for a charity tackling gang violence, will receive the payout under an agreement to be finalised this week.
Mr Hinds, from Edmonton, said: "I am disappointed and so angry at the way they treated me. It just shows that 30 years on, relations with the police and the black community have not improved. The black community treats the police with suspicion and incidents like this add fuel to that."
He brought a claim for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution in the High Court after two failed attempts to take his complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Mr Hinds, who sits on the Metropolitan Police's Black Independent Advisory Committee and is chairman of the monitoring group for stop-and-search in Haringey, was arrested when he stopped to observe a group of police officers who were searching a black youth at Seven Sisters train station in May 2004."
According to Lord Carlile, there have been over 300,000 “stop and search” procedures carried out in a single year under the Terrorism Act, and no successful prosecutions resulting from them – so it’s natural that anyone would want to pay attention when the police stop someone on the street, as Mr Hinds did here. He'd done nothing wrong, but was arrested for taking an interest that any of us might have done in the wellbeing of a fellow human being who was subject to investigation by an overmighty state. This is why we can't give carte blanche to any organisation, no matter how much we might be inclined to favour them.
After all, this incident is not unique. The very serious abuse of powers by police at Kingsnorth climate camp last year was captured on video. Likewise, at the G20 protests this year, in addition to the allegations of (and clear demonstrations of) needless violence, officers plainly hid their shoulder numbers and refused to give them when asked – which they’re certainly not entitled to do (well discussed by Shami Chakrabarti here).
Incidents like these undermine our faith in those who are supposed to protect us, and increase our fears about living in a Big Brother state.
As far as the compensation for Hinds is concerned, it’s inevitable that there would be some sort of outcome like this, particularly when the police drag their feet for five years on doing anything about it.
There has to be some remedy when this happens. Wrongful imprisonment (to state what one would hope is the obvious) is very serious. Only when this sort of punishment gets doled out will the police listen.
But I would rather have had the relevant police officers professionally disciplined. If their behaviour has led to this outcome, then they ought to be held responsible. Instead, the state – or really, you and I – pick up the bill. No punishment for those responsible, punishment for the taxpayer instead.
I mean… [inserts lighter note to his preachy post] where will it all end!?
By Alex Deane
I'll be discussing this issue on BBC Radio London at 6.10pm today – listen live here.