SCOTTISH
POLICE FEDERATION
5 Woodside Place, Glasgow, G3 7QF
MEDIA
RELEASE
The Scottish Police Federation represents all police officers in the
ranks of chief inspector and below, about 15,000 people, over 98%
of all police officers in Scotland.
To:
Date:
Subject: |
All
Outlets on request
Friday
10 September 2004
Handcuffs
for Bouncers |
HANDCUFFS
FOR DOORSTAFF
In
response to handcuffs being issued to bouncers in England , Doug Keil
General Secretary said,
“I
acknowledge that bar and nightclub door staff have a difficult job
to do, but we would not support them using handcuffs.
Door
staff only have the same powers as the ordinary citizen and that's
as it should be. They have the ordinary citizens power of arrest,
that is they can detain someone if they see him or her committing
a serious crime (and that does not include Breach of the Peace) –
they must use only the minimum necessary force and then contact the
police.
Police
officers are extensively trained to know when they can or cannot arrest
someone, and when they can or cannot use handcuffs. They are fully
accountable for their actions and they are accountable to the public,
politicians and the courts – they act on behalf of the public. There
is a massive training manual on the use of handcuffs and each officer
receives national and local training.
Door
staff should be regulated, trained and accredited but this is not
yet the case in Scotland . While some of them receive training, by
no means do all them do, and remember, they act principally for the
licensee of the premises, not the public. In these circumstances I
don't think they should use handcuffs, and I don't think any police
powers or police type powers and equipment should be extended to them
or anybody else for that matter.
Hand
cuffs applied improperly can result in injury – broken wrists or arms,
dislocated shoulders, they can cut off the blood supply. And once
the person is handcuffed, there is a lot to know about how he or she
should be looked after. Its certainly not the case that once handcuffed
your problems are over, they don't guarantee compliance and they don't
guarantee that this is going to improve the situation.
If
this is allowed to happen, what next? Do we give handcuffs to store
detectives, security guards? Do we give them other types of police
equipment, CS Spray or batons?
I
agree absolutely that it often takes the police a long time to attend
calls for assistance. Undoubtedly, we need more officers to do the
job properly. But it's hardly our fault that we're busy. What we need
to look at is the responsibility of those who run the pubs and the
clubs and who employ door staff. Who sells the alcohol to drunken
individuals? Too many licensed premises are quite prepared to sell
people huge amounts of alcohol to people as long as they are thrown
out at the end of the night. They then become someone else's problem.
The
answers to this problem – greater responsibility
on those who sell alcohol, more police officers on the street, and
serious action by the courts so that there is a real deterrent against
this type of antisocial behaviour. Handcuffs for door staff are not
the answer – they could make matters worse for everyone concerned.”
