Thursday, 9 May 2019

Rough Sleepers Being Arrested By Police Under 194-Year-Old Law


Homeless people sleeping rough in Bristol are still being arrested and detained by police officers using an almost 200-year-old law. 10 people in the last two years were apprehended under the Vagrancy Act of 1824, according to a Freedom of Information request. This is despite repeated calls by MPs, academics, charities and the public to scrap the law. Its use by police has been slammed in recent years by groups who say it criminalises beggars. Agencies have called the police’s use of the law “ridiculous” and “shambolic” particularly after it was discovered eight people between 2016 and 2017 had been arrested under the act. Read more on the Bristol Live website.

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