After a peaceful protest at power giant E-On's Central Nottingham offices on Tuesday April 1st, two demonstrators were arrested on suspicion of Aggravated tresspass, despite a police statement given less than two hours earlier that no arrests would be made if the protesters agreed to move from their positions in front of the building at a specified time. Following negotiation between police inspector John Davis and Eastside Climate Action police liason Bob Fisher, Davis read a statement saying that at 10am a warning would be given for protesters to move from the area or risk facing arrest.

At 9:53am a warning was given, following which protesters immediately removed themselves from their positions. Police then arrested two people, who were taken to Bridewell police station and detained for over nine hours, while their houses were raided in search of evidence of charges that were dropped later that same day.

Custody records concur that the search was authorised in respect of evidence of the alleged trespass, however as police were in attendance at the scene were the trespass was alleged to have taken place, and the arrestees remained in the same position in front of the building throughout the protest, police could not have reasonably expected to find any evidence of such a trespass elsewhere.

After eight hours in detention the arrestees were given access to a solicitor, who had already logged a complaint about the 'dirty' search. Following their release the protesters were advised and have today initiated formal complaints about Nottighamshire police's authorisation and execution of these searches. The complaints were recorded at St Anns and Radford Road stations and will initially be investigated by the police's Professional Standards Department. In cases where the police fail to adequately investigate or address complaints, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) are called in to manage or review complaints against the police.

 http://www.ipcc.gov.uk