No warrant needed to enter homes
ALMOST 150 council employees across East Yorkshire have the power to enter any home or business without a warrant, it has been revealed.
There are 115 local authority officers with the power employed by East Riding Council, and 33 by Hull City Council.
They do not need a warrant or police officer escort to enter a property and can be done so using 1,043 different powers.
The number of officers in the East Riding is more than double the national average of 47 per local authority.
Northamptonshire County Council and Glasgow City Council have the most officers able to enter homes, with almost 500 each.
The figures were revealed after campaign group Big Brother Watch sent Freedom of Information requests to every local authority across the country.
Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "Once, a man's home was his castle.
"Today, the Big Brother state wants to inspect, regulate and standardise the inside of our homes.
"Councils are dishing out powers of entry to officers within their council for their own ease, without giving due thought to the public's right to privacy and the potential for abuse.
"There needs to be a much closer eye kept on the number of officers granted the right to barge into private premises without a warrant."
The Mail contacted East Riding Council's leader Councillor Stephen Parnaby who said he could not be drawn on the figures as he had not seen the campaign group's report.
However, he insisted that a national average which was not based on the number of people served by any one authority could not be considered reliable.
And it is believed the majority of officers with such powers are based in the child protection areas of each council.
52 Comments
View all
by The Emperor, Hull
Tuesday, December 29 2009, 5:38PM
“A simple solution. Don't have children and don't keep pets, and if your elderly relatives need care, either move out or dump them on the State. Then, council officials will have no excuse to enter your home.”
by Allan, N-Hull
Tuesday, December 29 2009, 9:37AM
“So many comments and so much crap to go with it!
If the fact that this new statement is to protect children, the abused and neglected animals than surely they would need the police present on custodial ground and evidence, so the free walk in key would not be needed would it?
I was arrested, given a police caution and had finger prints and DNA taken for protecting my own property from an EX wife who had taken what she wanted and returned 3 month later for the rest. Because she pushed her way in I grabbed her by the collar and removed her from my home as any one would.
So just think before you all state what ¿your going to do¿ to protect yourselves as there is only one winner in this so called GREAT BRITAIN (and I use these words lightly) and it isn¿t the very people who work all hours and pay so much taxes to the controlling government that¿s for sure!
If I could have saved what we¿ve paid in taxes we (my wife and I) would have fled this sinking island by now I am sure.
As [Caractacus Potts, In me shed] has said, R.I.P Great Britain and all it has stood for!”
by Uncle Joseph Stalin, Kremlin Mausoleum,Red Square,Moscow
Tuesday, December 29 2009, 8:08AM
“I used to dream of the glorious situation you now have in the UK Comrades.
In the old days back in the Kremlin the world especially those Yankee Imperialists had the nerve to call the glorious USSR a police State....?!!
But WE never had up to 4.2m CCTV cameras watching the proles 27/7 - that's about one for every 14 people comrade's . ...what does that make Your Counrty then Tovarich ????
It's enough to make you yearn for vodka & invading Berlin with the Red Army again...ahh happy Days !!”
by yorkiegirl, york
Tuesday, December 29 2009, 8:01AM
“All round to Stephen Parnabys house for a free walk in ... see how he feels about.”
by Moscow Gold, Eastern Front 1942
Tuesday, December 29 2009, 7:48AM
“"Or do you people put your own reactionary, self-centred paranoia before the life of a child?" - right on target there Jimbo.
Especially the "reactionary" section from the usual suspects.
In another decade or some of the Hull populace might arrive at the 1950's...if they're very lucky, LOL!!
Not many of the posters on here will have had to deal with the aftermath of child 'alerter' cases but that won't stop the usual moronic right wing reactionaries bleating about 'liberal do-gooders" etc etc.Having possesion of the facts never seems to be a barrier to comment on here.
I'm just amazed no-ones blamed "asylum seekers" yet..."top ten city".....?? dream on LOL!!
Perhaps they'd prefer it if the world was full of "do-badders" - give me strength!!”
by Merlin, Hull
Tuesday, December 29 2009, 1:00AM
“We need to halt and reverse these powers. Clearly there is a balance to be struck. In my view, they have overstepped the mark. The media have an important role here. Lets have it out in the open still more until the deadhead politicians get the message.”
by Jimbo, Bev
Tuesday, December 29 2009, 12:04AM
“If just one child¿s life is saved because officers have this power, then I reckon it's a power worth having. Or do you people put your own reactionary, self-centred paranoia before the life of a child?”
by Arthur, Ezzle Road
Monday, December 28 2009, 10:46PM
“"A local authority overusing its powers has nothing to do with the European Union."
It certainly does my old son, over the past 12 years this lousy rotten "New Labour" party has sold us out to the EU, 70% of all our laws are now made in Brussels and it's Parliament and the EU who give councils their powers. Old labour was for the real people, new labour is for the management consultants, middle class meddlers, sociology lecturers and other non-entities who've no real experience of life.”
by Paul, hull
Monday, December 28 2009, 10:40PM
“Some people need to grow up.
There are some valuable points made here about the unregulated power of the state, and then they lose all credibility by going on a bizarre and irrelevant rant about the EU.
A local authority overusing its powers has nothing to do with the European Union.”
by PC Plod,, Queens Gardens nick
Monday, December 28 2009, 10:24PM
“We have tyhe poiice to all the 'dirty' work, why do we need these Gestapo onj the job, too?
Joe Public might have to get on his feet within the next few years, I think. Get out there and do something for himself. he's been complacent long enough; we've had it too good for too long. Remember, 'all it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing'...or something like that. It's slowly happening all around us.”