Mr. Drew Harris:

Human rights is an essential part of policing. It can underpin and clarify much of our decision making. As a police service we have access to powers such as those of search and arrest. We can use force in terms of incapacitant spray, as has been said, and up to and including lethal force in the use of firearms. All of that should be bound by human rights provisions and that should guide us in our decision-making. There is a whole set of European jurisprudence which guides police on how they should use their powers of arrest, search and force and, underpinning that, how they should plan for major events, critical incidents such as a public order, or firearms incidents. There is a lot of guidance underpinning human rights which is invaluable to us in terms of how we seek to police, with public support, to the very high standards that are expected of us in terms of human rights. When we say we want to incorporate human rights we are saying we want to bring all the guidance that has been provided through European jurisprudence as to how we should police certain types of events.