The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has launched a new six-week public consultation over police stop-and-search powers in England and Wales, telling the House of Commons that it is “time to get stop and search right.”
May told MPs there were serious disparities in search-to-arrest ratios across England and Wales, with some being “far too low for comfort.”
On a national average, only 9% of police stop and searches result in arrest. In London this figure is even lower, at 8%, and in Cumbria only 3%.
Emphasising the inefficiency of the procedure, May explained that it takes on average 16 minutes to conduct a stop and search and process the details. That amounts to 312,000 hours each year and the equivalent of 145 full-time police officers.
Police stop-and-search powers have been widely criticised over the years for their often discriminatory nature, in which non-white, and especially black, individuals are prone to being targeted disproportionately.
A 2010 report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found “persistent race differences” in the police’s use of stop and search. It showed black people were six times as likely to be stopped and searched as white people, with Asian people twice as likely to be stopped as white people.
This week May claimed that the social impact of such a trend was not “sustainable.”
“We’ve all been told stories by constituents and members of the public about what it’s like to be a young, law-abiding black man who has been stopped and searched by the police on more than one occasion,” the home secretary told MPs.
“If anybody thinks that it’s sustainable to allow that to continue, with all its consequences for public confidence in the police, they need to think again,” she said, adding that police had a duty to ensure that nobody was ever stopped “just on the basis of their skin colour.”
“I want to make sure that stop and search is used fairly and in everybody’s interest. I want to see stop and search used only when it’s needed,” she told the Commons.
“I want to see higher search-to-arrest ratios. I want to see better community engagement and I want to see more efficient recording practices across the country.
“At its best, stop and search is a vital power in the fight against crime. At its worst, it’s a waste of police time and serves to undermine public confidence in the police… It’s time to get stop and search right.”
The launch of the consultation was met with welcome on both sides of the Commons. Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East and Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, claimed that searches under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act– which do not even need the police to have any grounds of suspicion – black people were 25 times more likely to be searched in the street.
“It can’t be right in Britain that you should be targeted because of the colour of your skin,” he said, before urging May not to just treat the consultation as a “paper exercise”, suggesting she visit communities most affected by stop and search.
Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said proper training was vital to stop the “important weapon” of police searching being “detrimental to community relations.”
Privacy and civil liberties campaigners also welcomed the Home Secretary’s statement.
“Today’s statement is an important step towards ensuring the public, particularly people from ethnic minorities, can have confidence that they can walk the streets without fearing they will be subject to further unjustified use of stop-and-search powers,” said Nick Pickles, director of the group Big Brother Watch.
Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act – which defines the terms of what is popularly known as “stop and search” – has been in force since 1994. Section 60 grants police powers to search any pedestrian, driver or passenger, as long as an officer of the rank of inspector or above “reasonably believes… that persons are carrying dangerous instruments or offensive weapons in any locality in his police area without good reason.”
May’s call for police stop-and-search powers to be curbed appears to reflect a considerable turnaround in Conservative party policy on the issue.
In 2000 then-leader William Hague condemned the Macpherson Report into the murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence, saying its accusation of “institutionalised racism” within the police force had made police reluctant to use stop and search.
In 2008 David Cameron told the Sun newspaper that “we are never going to deal with [knife crime] unless we free the police to do far more stopping and far more searching. I am quite clear the current rules have to go.”
May told the Commons she would bring forward detailed proposals for change later this year.
