For Sale: I'm a Terrorist not a Photographer

Apologies for the fisking !

:S

. . . * Section 44 of the Terrorism Act gives the police the power to stop and search anyone that want within a designated geographical area . . . *

This is true but you can ask for:

Their name and the station where they work . . . . They must then give a warrant card or identification number)

Technically yes, but if they do not want to identify themselves what are you going to do ? You could make a complaint, it might be looked at - and if it is - then it is almost certain that no action will be taken against the officer.

There are no end of incidents of officers not identifying themselves, it is commonplace.

The law under which you have been stopped

Yep, they must tell you that you are being stopped under section 44 - but again (and I hate to sound like a broken record) if they fail to tell you - either wilfully or not - so what ? No one is really going to get too excited about a complaint about a technical oversight.

Why you have been stopped and searched

They do not need to give a reason under section 44, like I say they can stop who they like when they like whenever they please, no reason needed.

Why they chose you

They do not need to give any reason under section 44.

What they are looking for

Not under section 44, they do not need to have a reason for stopping you.

The police officer will ask for your name and address and date of birth. You do not have to give this information if you don’t want to, unless the police officer says they are reporting you for an offence.

This right to withhold your personal details exists only in the minds of the legislators, effectively there is no right, if you chose to exercise what is technically your right and refuse to hand over your personal details to an officer you will be deemed as having an 'attitude' (the police's own term for those who refuse to identify themselves) - you will be seen as acting suspiciously by withholding your name and address - which opens you up to further investigation - push your 'rights' far enough and you will done for 'obstruction', 'anti-social behaviour', 'harassment, alarm or distress' or any of the 'catch-all' statues/Acts regularly abused/misused by officers.

Basically you should see these kinds of encounters in the same way as being mugged.

You can protest to the mugger that what he is doing is illegal and point out your rights under this or that section of the law, but that is not going to make any difference he will do his thing regardless - similarly these kinds of incidents with the police can be seen in a similar way, you can point out what the police officer can and can't do under the law, but he won't be too interested and will eventually get what he wants - if it's your name or your address or to look at the pictures on your camera or even to delete them there is little you can do.

To put this in perspective, not all officers / PCSOs, enforcement officers (and the rest) brush the law aside so readily, but those who do have little to stop them.

This includes the handing over of goods.
If carried out properly it is a pain in the arse and waste of time... BUT it can be made more of an inconvinience to them.

You've obviously never been arrested for obstruction ! : )

To be honest you can do all these things you say, but you need to try it to see how ineffective it is in an actual encounter - to see how much even talking back to an officer will really piss them off, to start explaining your rights under the law will have you instantly labelled as 'cocky' - which will just lead to a fishing exercise where by they will detain you long enough to find something - absolutely anything - to do you for if they wish to.

For example that Italian art student girl who was recently harassed, intimidated, detained (and from what I can tell assaulted during her arrest) and generally fucked about with by officers and PCSOs for taking photos - had section 44 of the terrorism act, a cycling violation and section 31 of the Crime and disorder Act (Harassment, alarm or distress) - all used against her at one point or another.

if they get annoyed you also make a note of that. you can then report them

Report = 0.
Police = 1.

It's not like the IPCC is going to be interested : ) they are not going to go running down to the CPS because some police officer deleted your photos - you might, if lucky, get a reply from the station saying "sorry, the officer was a new recruit and inexperienced in these matters" (even if he looked like he had been in the force for 30 years).

P.S - where you on or near Oxford Street yesterday around 7.30pm ?