Legal Status
The Constables were sworn in under Article 18 of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government Provisional Order Confirmation (Greater London Parks and Open Spaces) Act 1967. This states that:
| “ | A local authority may procure officers appointed by them for securing the observance of the provisions of all enactments relating to open spaces under their control or management and of bye-laws and regulations made thereunder to be sworn in as a constable for that purpose but any such officer shall not act as a Constable unless in uniform or provided with a warrant. | ” |
This gives the powers of a Constable whilst enforcing open space law, including bye-laws and regulations. This includes the power under the Road Traffic Act 1988 to stop a vehicle, driving onto common land. Other powers used by the Constables are set out in Sections 24 and 24A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) as amended by section 110 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.
When on or off duty and they see an offence being committed that is not in breach of the open spaces laws, they may only arrest using 'other person powers' (commonly known as citizen's arrest) given under Section 24a of PACE.
Wandsworth council's opinions on the stop and search powers of Parks Police constables differed. One report stated that they had no such powers, whereas a later report said they had search powers only upon arrest for breach of bylaws, under Section 1 of PACE. However, the post-arrest power of searching was derived from Section 32 of PACE which allows those that are arrested to be searched:
"Section 32(1): A constable may search an arrested person, in any case where the person to be searched has been arrested at a place other than a police station, if the constable has reasonable grounds for believing that the arrested person may present a danger to himself or others.
Section 32(2) Subject to subsections (3) to (5) below, a constable shall also have power in any such case- (a) to search the arrested person for anything - (i) which he might use to assist him to escape from lawful custody; or (ii) which might be evidence relating to an offence"
It would seem that these constables did have such a power. However, if they seized evidence in relation to a suspected offence of which they did not have jurisdiction then they still had a power of seizure, although they were required to hand the evidence over to a local police officer for consideration of arrest.
Regardless of their status as Constables, they were also council officers and as such could enforce legislation which only Local Authority Officers are able to enforce for prosecution.
Read more about this topic: Wandsworth Parks Police
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