Due to a number of incidents of disorder in Swindon today, Wiltshire Police have put in place orders which temporarily grant officers greater powers to stop and search individuals.
The Section 60 and Section 60AA orders cover an area specified by the attached map and run for up to 24 hours from 6pm today.
The Section 60 Order allows police officers to stop and search anyone within the designated area without needing to have reasonable grounds – and the 60AA order further extends these powers to allow officers to require them to remove face coverings which might obscure their identification
Superintendent Liz Coles said: “The orders have been put in place in response to a number of quite serious incidents in the Swindon area today; these include two assaults in which weapons were used, which will understandably have sparked community concern.
“We hope that the public will be assured that we are taking this proportional but robust action in order to support our front line officers in maintaining public safety and proactively tackling potential disorder.”
For more information on how a section 60 order operates, visit: https://crowd.in/04Pja4
