Police Power Etc.

Scenario 3 Weatherbell and Farzal are Police Constables on duty when receiving a call from 'All That Glitters ' - jewellers in the shopping centre about a woman who is believed to be a theft.The information they have got about the suspect is : young,tall woman with long blonde hair wearing jeans and black jacket carrying a black rucksack. As the police constables mentioned above drove past Station Square they see young woman meeting the description they have. When officer Weathrbell runs after the woman and confronts her about her name and contents of her rucksack the woman whose name is Paige Tylor looks anxious. As both officers have no proves or evidence that Paige is the woman they are looking for and they haven't seen her committing the crime they can not exercise and arrest under section 24(1) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.However section 24(2) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 states that 'If a constable has reasonable grounds for suspecting that an offence has been committed,he may arrest without a warrant anyone whom he has reasonable grounds to suspect of being guilty of it. ' as she meets the description given to them by the person who made the call. Supporting their decision is also section 24(3) which states that if there is a committed criminal offence the police constables may arrest anyone who is believed to be guilty of it. The basis of the arrest are: section 24(5)(a) 'to enable the name of the person in question to be ascertained (in the case where the constable does not know, and cannot readily ascertain, the person's name given by the person as his name is his real name);' in the scenario it is not clear how they got the name of the suspect, section 24(5)(c)(iii) 'to prevent the person in question -causing loss or damage to property; ' she is meeting the description of the theft described, therefore she is believed to have stolen possessions from 'All That Glitters' – jewellery shop in the shopping centre ,section