UK: New powers for police and MI5
01 July 1996
New legislation to put the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) onto a statutory footing and to create a new National Crime Squad (NCS) were announced by the Home Secretary, Mr Howard on 5 July. The NCIS was founded in 1992 NCIS and has been based on make-shift arrangement put together by the Home Office restricting NCIS's powers to gathering intelligence but excluding any operational involvement (see Statewatch vol 2 no 2 and vol 5 no 5).
Alongside NCIS will be the NCS covering England and Wales. It will be comprised of the existing six Regional Crime Squads and will carry out investigations into organised crime and serious offences.
Both of the new agencies will be headed by Chief Constables and so-called "service authorities" not police forces and any reference to them being effectively a US-style FBI is denied. Mr Howard said: "We are not establishing a British equivalent of the FBI. There will be no "federal crimes". The public will continue to report crimes to their local police." The logic of this argument is strange - all laws in the UK cover the whole country and various routed hotlines into the NCIS means that information can be logged centrally or locally then centrally. These "service authorities" are to be "modelled on police authorities", which is hardly a recommendation. The recent "reforms" of the police gave Chief Constables greater powers and allow the Home Office to appoint "independent" members to local police authorities.
While MI5 is to still get warrants to "bug and burgle" from the Home Secretary under the new Security Service Act 1996 all police forces - not just these new squads - will be able to exercise the same powers when authorised by their own Chief Constable. The Home Secretary has chosen to simply put on a statutory basis the present system of police entering and interfering with property under Home Office guidelines issued in 1984. An "independent Commissioner" will be appointed to "oversee arrangements and investigate complaints" - and if the precedent of the Commissioners, who oversee telephone-tapping and the security and intelligence services, is anything to go by this will simply be window-dressing to avoid contravening the European Convention on Human Rights.
The danger in this last measure is that Chief Constable who have until now exercised their powers under the 1984 guidelines sparingly will feel able to authorise more "bug and burgle" warrants if they are put on a statutory basis. Moreover, the figures for "authorisation" issued by Chief Constables since 1984 have never been published it will be interesting to see if the new statutory ones are.
Home Office, press release 18.7.96; Fighting organised crime: Michael Howard outlines the next steps, Home Office press release 2.7.96; Guardian, 7.5.96; Police Review, 5.7.96; Guidelines on the use of equipment in police surveillance operations, Home Office, 19.12.84.