POLICE 'GET IT WRONG' ON RIGHTS

SCOTTISH chief constables were last night accused of "staggering
complacency" for believing police procedures already complied with
human rights legislation and did not need to be reformed.

Andrew Brown, the chief constable of Grampian, said yesterday he
believed police in Scotland did not do anything that breached the
European Convention on Human Rights.

But John Scott, the convener of the Scottish Human Rights Centre
(SHRC), described Mr Brown's comments as disappointing. "This is
staggering complacency and It is difficult to believe they could
maintain a straight face while they were saying all this," he said.

"The police will have to learn the hard way, with cases being marked
for no proceedings or kicked out of court. That is not the way we
would have wanted it to happen. It would have been better if they
could have come to reform willingly rather than by being dragged
kicking and screaming, as usual."

Under the Scotland Act, from 20 May all prosecutions must comply with
the rights to liberty, to privacy and to a fair trial laid down in the
convention.

The SHRC has identified a number of areas of police practice that it
claims contravene the convention or the case law set by the European
Court of Human Rights. They could be used by defence lawyers to have
cases thrown out of court. These include:

Routinely Police stopping lawyers from sitting in with their clients
when they are first being interviewed on suspicion of a crime;

Keeping suspects in custody all weekend on charges that do not carry a
prison sentence.

Failing to provide full explanations to justify applying for a search
or arrest warrant;

Relying on witness statements that have not been recorded or written
in police notebooks at the time.

Procurators-fiscal in Glasgow Sheriff Court have already changed their
procedures and now give full reasons for opposing bail - as all
procurators-fiscal will have to do from 20 May.

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland has had two
working groups examining the implications of the act.

Yesterday, ACPOS held a seminar at the Scottish Police College at
Tulliallen to discuss their findings.

At a press conference, Mr Brown - the chairman of ACPOS's general
policing committee, which set up the working groups - said all
Scotland's eight chief constables were issuing a guidance document to
their officers. It is understood the document stresses the need to
comply with current police procedure, and does not outline any changes
in procedures.

"We categorically believe, following two working groups, that there is
nothing that the police do in Scotland at the moment that breaches the
Convention," said Mr Brown.

He acknowledged that excluding lawyers from interviews carried out
under Section 14 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act was an area of
debate. The act says that a suspect has the right to have his
solicitor informed that he is being questioned, but makes no explicit
mention of a right for the lawyer to sit in on the interview. In
practice, police will exclude lawyers who have turned up at the police
station to support their client.