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The Rights of Suspects - Coggle Diagram
The Rights of Suspects
Stop and account
An officer has the right to ask you to account for your actions, your presence in a public place, and your possession of a particular item.
Stop and search
Police have 19 different powers of stop and search, e.g. for drugs, firearms and stolen goods, and to prevent acts of terrorism. Police also have certain powers to search vehicles and premises. These powers must be used fairly, responsibly and without discrimination against a person on grounds such as race, gender or sexual orientation.
Police power of arrest
The police may lawfully arrest you as a suspect, without a warrant from a court, if:
You have been involved, attempted to be involved or are suspected of being involved in committing an offence
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Fingerprints, photographs and samples
The police need both your permission and the authority of a senior police officer to take blood or urine samples (except when taking them in connection with drink or drug driving).
The Right to Information
Information from fingerprints and samples is stored in a police database. You can ask the police to remove your information from their database but they will only do this if an offence no longer exists or if anything in the police process (e.g. how you were arrested) was unlawful.
The police have the right to take photos of you, as well as fingerprints and a DNA sample (e.g. from a mouth swab), and they can swab the skin surface of your hands and arms. They don't need your permission to do this and they can use reasonable force if necessary.
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Rights of Appeal
If you were tried in the Crown Court, you have no automatic right of appeal - a judge will decide whether or not to allow it.
If you were tried in a magistrates' court, you can automatically appeal:
Against your conviction, so long as you had pleaded not guilty at your trial.
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