Mosquito Devices

The Mosquito device has been purchased and deployed in the area covered by your Force, in particular Macclesfield. Please provide the legal basis on which your Force does not intervene to prevent its use as a deliberate nuisance aimed at deliberately distressing and annoying a section of the population (and it is advertised as such). Please also cite the legal basis on which the Police deploy it or allow or tolerate its use by members of the public.

Also, why its use by individuals such as shopkeepers is not viewed by the Police as individuals taking the law into their own hands, vigilanteism.

Please also confirm your understanding that this device will affect the vast majority of people under the age of 18 (that is children).

Please confirm the number of occasions it has been used by the Police, and to your knowledge, by private individuals, and how many of these devices are owned by the Police and how many are known to be owned by others in the Force area?

On how many occasions that it has been used are there records of young people in the area affected doing anything unlawful and, equally important, how many occasions are known that it was used when young people were doing nothing unlawful.

Additionally, confirm that it will certainly distress children some of whom will be unable, because of tender years, to explain what it is that is causing them distress. Has the Police Authority or Force considered any research into this aspect of children of very tender years?

The European Convention on Human Rights forbids, unconditionally with no scope for modification, discrimination (Article 14:"The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority,property, birth or other status.") and (Article 3): "No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". Can the Force please set out its reasons as to why it should condone, use or tolerate the use of this device on the basis of those two Articles which it, as a public authority, is bound to uphold at all times?

In accordance with section 1 (1) (a) of the Act our response is provided below;

In respect of all your questions there is no information held by Cheshire Constabulary.

Please note the following: The Freedom of Information Act requires public authorities to supply copies of recorded information. Authorities are not obliged to offer opinions, answer speculative questions or create new information in order to answer a request.

In order for you to better understand Cheshire Constabulary's position on the question of Mosquito devices we can on this occasion provide with the following advice.

The Cheshire Constabulary encourages local communities to work together with neighbourhood policing teams and our other public service partners to address local issues of what are often described as anti social behaviour, but which may in fact reflect a lack of service provision, or integration within existing service provision by one part of the community. Where there is behaviour of an anti social or criminal nature we endeavour to deal with this firmly but fairly in a way that reflects the concerns of the whole community. This may be through use of the legislative powers available to us, although most often in the case of young people who have not yet entered the criminal justice system, this will be through the use of restorative approaches that seek to allow the offender to view their behaviour in the context of its impact on the victim(s) and wider community.

The MOSQUITO device does not normally allow this kind of re -integrative approach to be applied and is not the Constabulary's preferred method for dealing with these kinds of issue.

The Cheshire Constabulary do not own or deploy the MOSQUITO device. We are not aware of any prima facia case, case law or precedent that renders the use of it criminally unlawful. As a result we have had no cause to research its capability or impact.

You may wish to seek information from your Local Environmental Health Officer who may have information relating to the use and deployment of the device. Please see the following web pages:

Environmental Health Cheshire East