A MAN who said he felt he had to walk through a mobile knife arch has questioned its lawfulness.

The arch had been put up by Essex Police in Red Lion walk, Colchester, yesterday as part of a bid to tackle knife crime.

Walk-through metal detectors are frequently used to detect whether someone is carrying a blade, and are frequently used near railway stations.

But one shopper, who asked to remain anonymous, complained about the placement of the arch, which he felt made it a requirement to undergo a form of search without reasonable suspicion.

Essex Police say walking through the arches is not compulsory and therefore the metal detectors do not constitute a stop and search.

The shopper said: “The police set up a walk-through metal detector in Red Lion Walk and unless they’ve set a Section 60 code in there, which means they can ask anyone to walk through it or search them then I think it’s unlawful.

“In the end I walked through it because I felt I had to prove I wasn’t carrying anything.

“But there was no choice but to go through it or turn around and look even more suspicious.”

Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 allows the police to search people without any suspicion directed at the individual, while all other search powers depend on officers having a reasonable suspicion a person is carrying a prohibited item.

The orders are typically used during serious incidents, must cover a specific area and can last up to 24 hours.

Officers in Colchester have regularly deployed the portable arch as one of many means of tackling knife crime.

The arches are deployed as part of Project Servator, which also sees the police use tactics such as deploying plain-clothed police officers to tackle criminal activity, including knife crime, in an unpredictable way.

After the deployment of the arch in Southend in April, Sgt Dave Gardiner said: “Knife arches are just one ‘tool’ we use to combat knife crime.

"Not only do they discourage people who want to use knives, they also provide a talking point for local residents, who come up to chat to us and ask how they work.

“And that’s always good as we pick up a lot of local knowledge and information that way.”