Idea off the top of my head
I don't think the crime exemption is relevant here, and I can't see how/or
why you would want to stop the police accessing the record of meetings. I
also think that there can be non-sinister motives for such access.
I think that the police could well legitimately argue that there might be
traffic issues or public safety implications etc from certain meetings;
that is in addition to public order issues where some groups might not want
other groups to book certain meetings (e.g. the hall used by the BNP). On
the other hand, there might be suspicions from those book meetings of a
political nature that the police record who has organised a meeting (in the
ways the Stasi did).
The way forward is transparency. It might be useful to make sure that
everyone who books a public meeting knows that the details are publicly
available. Ask the police to come up with a "fair obtaining" notice which
specifies the kind of events which may concern them; the leaflet can take
the opportunity for the organisers of such meetings to contact the relevant
police department should there be a likelihood issues such as crowd control,
public safety etc (and what they don't do perhaps). The leaflet/information
can be given to those who book the hall.
It will be interesting to see whether all meetings are now labelled
"Grandmothers and Young Children Tupperware Party"
C.
----------
> From: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Police Request
> Date: 30 March 2000 13:25
>
> <<File Attachment: ENVELOPE.TXT>>
> Hi
> Can you help? I have just had one of our local hall caretakers come back
> to
> me - apparently the Police had gone in to the hall and said they wanted to
> see the Book with the Hall Bookings for the next month. This was not in
> connection with any crime - I believe they just wanted to see who had
> booked
> the hall. I believe that they can't do this ..but does the Hall come
> under a Public
> Register (i.e. the Book holding the bookings). The Police just probably
> want to know if there is likely to be trouble at any event but surely they
> just can't do this. Please help..
> Many thanks.
> Dor
>
>
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