POLICE POWER TO STOP CARS UNDER THREAT

Vince Chadwick, June 21, 2013

Magistrate Duncan Reynolds ruled police do not have 'an unfettered right to stop or detain a person and seek identification'. Photo: Craig Abraham

A Melbourne magistrate has ruled that police cannot pull over vehicles without a reason in a case that has reignited questions of racial profiling by law enforcement.
Police have long relied on section 59 of the Road Safety Act to stop motorists at random to check licences, registration and for outstanding warrants.
Section 59 states that a driver is required to stop their car, produce their licence for inspection and state their name and address ''if requested or signalled to do so by a member of the police force''.

Magnus Kaba.

But the magistrate, Duncan Reynolds, ruled on Thursday that the law did not give police ''an unfettered right to stop or detain a person and seek identification details''.
Magnus Kaba, 21, from the Ivory Coast, was a passenger in a car stopped by police in Ascot Vale in April 2012 as part of a random routine intercept. Mr Kaba has been charged with a number of offences including assault after an altercation when one of the police officers asked to search the car.
Mr Reynolds ruled that the evidence of the police officers was inadmissible because it had been unlawful to stop the car without cause. ''Their conduct, in my opinion, unjustifiably breached the right to freedom of movement for Kaba and the driver,'' he said.
Police had also arbitrarily detained the men contrary to the Victorian Charter of Human Rights, he said. The case has been adjourned until July 24.
Mr Kaba's solicitor, Tamar Hopkins, of the Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre, said: ''Many people from African backgrounds, for example, have reported to us that they have been subject to routine intercepts by police where there is no underlying basis for the stop.
''As well as interfering with rights, routine intercepts are a practice that is open to abuse.''
Liberty Victoria president Jane Dixon, SC, said the magistrate had interpreted section 59 ''in a new light within the framework of the Charter of Human Rights. It will be interesting to see whether the prosecution appeal this decision.''
If police appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court, the case may set a precedent under Victorian law. A police spokeswoman said: ''This matter is still currently before the courts and Victoria Police will consider its options.''
Mr Reynolds' ruling does not affect the ability of police to conduct random breath tests, which has its own statutory power.
Mr Kaba is one of six young African men who claimed in a separate case that they were subjected to racial profiling by police in Flemington and North Melbourne between 2005 and 2009. Police settled the case for a confidential sum in February this year.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/police-power-to-stop-cars-under-threat-20130620-2oluv.html#ixzz2X0c5b72u

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