Landmark court ruling leads to policy rethink

SENIOR police officers yesterday (Wednesday) surrendered the power to take under-16s home to their parents after a High Court judge ruled against child curfews.
Lawyers for both the police and Camden Council were last night studying a landmark judgement by Lord Justice Brooke, who ruled that there was no power to force someone to go with officers.
The Home Office are planning an appeal.
The ruling came after a 15 year-old schoolboy from Richmond, south-west London, challenged the system.
It has serious ramifications for Camden because the council has been one of the pioneers of the controversial curfews, using the powers last summer and again this year.
Under the so-called ‘dispersal zone’ system, Camden has mapped out zones where police can split up groups of teenagers found hanging around on the streets after 9 pm.
A zone is currently mapped out across large swathes of Camden Town, Primrose Hill and Kentish Town. Officers can make arrests if instructions to leave the no-go zone are ignored.
But after yesterday’s High Court judgement, the rules have changed and police will not be able to take action against under-16s after 9 pm unless they are committing a crime.
Lord Justice Brooke said: “All of us have the right to walk the streets without interference from police constables unless they possess common law or statutory powers to stop us. If Parliament considered that such a power was needed, it should have said so, and identified the circumstances in which it intended the power to be exercised.”
A spokesman for Camden police said they were following a London-wide policy shift agreed yesterday (Wednesday) that will see all Metropolitan Police officers give up the power to take under-16s home.
But he added: “We were not doing that anyway. We have not been stopping under-16s who haven’t been causing trouble.”
The High Court ruling was last night (Wednesday) being discussed by council officers and senior Labour politicians. After an afternoon of high-level meetings, a Town Hall press official said: “Following today’s ruling in the case concerning the London Borough of Richmond, the main power of dispersal notices still remains, meaning that groups of people who are causing anti-social behaviour, irrespective of their age, can be dispersed from designated areas for up to 24 hours, to prevent trouble escalating and to protect residents.”
She added: “In Camden we have used the other powers of dispersal notices relating to unaccompanied Under 16s only if they were taking part in anti-social behaviour that causes harassment, alarm or distress i.e. permitting the police to take unaccompanied children home. As a result of the case concerning the London Borough of Richmond we understand that the Metropolitan Police has said that there is now no power to use any force in order to remove unaccompanied Under 16s and that the Home Office has indicated that they will appeal the decision. We will be following this closely and awaiting further developments and clarification.”