by David Harris • Armed police are being used to
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stop truck drivers in northern England as part of an increased antiterrorist effort.
Vehicles are being escorted into a lay-by by outriders where they are surrounded by a team of officers in body armour, equipped with machine pistols and handguns.
Drivers are interviewed, vehicles searched and all details checked on police computer before they are allowed to continue.
A North Yorkshire police spokesman says that the Prevention of Terrorism Act authorises the force to carry out the armed checks. So far no drivers have objected, he says: "We are aware of the civil liberties implications but take the view that a minor infringement of civil liberties is preferable to being blown up."
The North Yorkshire force is no stranger to the IRA threat: in 1992 two officers were shot by IRA gunmen when they stopped a car in a late night check. Ripon Barracks has also been the target of a bomb attack.
But the force has pledged not to target Irish hauliers and to keep the checks on commercial vehicles entirely random.
The spokesman says: "It would not make much sense targeting Irish vehicles. It is fairly unlikely if you are the IRA that you would choose a lorry with Irish plates, so in some ways those are the least likely to be used."