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Visible store cells for shoplifters
Offenders could be detained for four hours
A HOME Office review could lead to short-stay cells being installed for shoplifters in an Oxford Street store.
The five purpose-built rooms would be smaller than normal cells and made of Perspex, making suspects visible to shoppers.
Staff at Selfridges would be able to hold shoplifters for up to four hours under the plans revealed in a Home Office review of existing laws, which include:
n Aiming to free up time for police;
n Widening the scope for DNA sampling;
n Enlisting volunteers to assist the police.
“It takes police officers off the street and away from frontline duties,” said a Home Office spokesman. “A potential solution in dealing with high-volume offending is to enable the police to make use of short-term holding facilities located in shopping centres or town centres,” the consultation document says.
A Metropolitan police spokeswoman said: “At certain times of the year we have an influx of thieves on Oxford Street and a holding area nearby would mean we would be able to get police back on the beat more quickly. It would be for non-violent, non-threatening offenders.
“But this scheme is in the very, very early stages and we have a lot of work to do with other agencies to see if it is possible.”
A spokeswoman for Selfridges said the idea would still have to be put to the company’s board.
She said: “We have been talking to police for some time but there is nothing concrete at this time.”
The human rights group Liberty’s policy director Gareth Crossman criticised the review’s proposals to allow DNA sampling for minor offences.
He said: “The government is fast replacing the best traditions of English law with a chilling presumption of guilt. Six years ago, DNA sampling was about combating serious crime. Today dropping litter is proposed as lame excuses for an ever-growing national DNA database.”
The review of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Pace) Act 1984 is out for consultation. |
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