Last year, in the London Borough of Westminster alone the Metropolitan Police stopped and searched more than 100,000 people under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, citing their right to do so without genuine cause or suspicion.
That is the finding of a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by The Media Blog.
During the first nine months of 2009 the Metropolitan Police stopped 99,307 under Section 44, equating to 20.8% of all stops in Westminster.
Among those stopped were a great many photographers, stopped and interrogated for doing nothing more than their job - a situation which sparked a flurry of angry reactions last year, following some high-profile abuses by the police, and accusations the police were deliberately trying to make life as difficult as possible for the media.
But despite the police's apparent belief that photography is a trademark behaviour of would-be terrorists, The Media Blog also found the Met subsequently keeps no record of whether photography was even a factor in stops, raising further questions about the real motivation for such stops.
This weekend more than one thousand photographers are expected in Trafalgar Square to protest agains these police abuses at a demo arranged by campaign group I'm a Photographer Not a Terrorist.
Last week the European Court of Human Rights ruled the police's over-zealous abuses of Section 44 were illegal.
Comments