Comparative police systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Comparative police systems - Essay Example ther country and while arguing the extent to which they do so is beyond the scope of the present research, the research shall, nevertheless establish this to be the case with reference to surveillance. Through a comparative analysis of the post 9/11 right to surveillance granted to either of the two states, this paper shall demonstrate that even though the USA constitutes a more critical case than the UK, the right and expectation to privacy in both countries has been critically undermined. Laws governing privacy in the United Kingdom have traditionally, and customarily, restricted the right of the state to engage in the surveillance of citizens without establishing, and arguing, a cause to do so and obtaining the necessary warrants. The Interception of Communications Act (1985) effectively disallows law enforcement, or any representative of the state, from intercepting the telephone and electronic communication of citizens unless it is first established that doing so is integral, either to national security, or for the negation of the real and immediate threat which that person, or those whom he/she communicates with, pose towards society (Lloyd, 1986). Added to that, and as Carter (2001) explains, the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the United Kingdom is subject, holds that, other than when authorized by a court following the submission of evidence which clearly shows that surveillance is necessary for the prevention of a crime or the negation of an imm ediate threat, any form of state surveillance of private citizens, constitutes both a violation of their most basic civil and human rights. In other words, the pre 9/11 and pre 7/7 situation in the United Kingdom was such that strict regulatory frameworks effectively restricted the right of the state to engage in the surveillance of its citizens. As regards the pe-9/11 situation in the United States, despite the fact that the US Constitution makes no explicit provisions for privacy, the