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Ok, stop and search...my take after 30 years doing it. A thread...
The death of Stephen Lawrence happened within 18 months of me leaving Hendon. I’d spent 18 months living at Hendon, with diversity threaded through all my training.
The death of Stephen Lawrence happened within 18 months of me leaving Hendon. I’d spent 18 months living at Hendon, with diversity threaded through all my training.
PACE had been in for nearly 10 years when Stephen died so many lessons had been learned by April 1993 from its use. Rightly so, it has developed over time to the current version https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pace-code-a-2015
Over my career I have witnessed all manner of schemes (community, policing or partner led) designed and implemented to reduce violent crime. They have come and gone and nothing appears to have changed. The mantra exists...stop and search is racist.
Here are the homicide stats for London since 1990.
Policing and others have been trying to educate a generation of society from 1990 to now, nothing seems to have changed,apart from how cheap life seems to be. There is another constant though that has remained. Cops picking up the pieces of young, mainly men, dying on UK streets.
I keep hearing claims that we can’t stop and search our way out of this problem as it unfairly targets a section of society. What I don’t hear are the alternatives. I’ll give you an example of an alternative...get rid of PACE section 1, the result is that everyone gets arrested.
Because THE main reason stop search (in current form) exists is that it prevents unnecessary arrests. To ALLAY or confirm an officers suspicions WITHOUT exercising powers of arrest. If you don’t believe me, here it is.
So what does society want? Does society want large numbers of people who would have been stop searched and sent on their way (because the majority of searches result in a negative outcome) arrested and taken to custody? Or would you rather a minor delay in your day.
I hope the latter because that’s partly why PACE was introduced. Check out this and sus laws. So where we are today is not a new issue. Going back to mass arrests would be very bad. It’s the same issue 40 + years on, with I would suggest some significant differences to Policing.
1. Strict legislation and stated cases covering stop and search.
2. More accountability of officers through body cameras, IOPC, stop search scrutiny panels, advances in mobile phones.
3. Implementation of many recommendations from many reports on Policing and policies.
2. More accountability of officers through body cameras, IOPC, stop search scrutiny panels, advances in mobile phones.
3. Implementation of many recommendations from many reports on Policing and policies.
I agree, we can’t stop & search our way out of the violent crime problem. Attempts to educate must continue. Lifting people out of poverty must continue. All the engagement and partnership work must continue. However....
We must also continue putting cops on the streets utilising stop and search laws given to Policing by and kept on the statute books by Parliament. Remember, if the politicians didn’t want policing to use stop and search they would remove it from the Policing tool box.
Criminals hate nothing more than seeing cops get out of a car to speak to them. In a democratic society ALL citizens (including criminals) have a civic duty to help police prevent crime and discover offenders. Cops can speak to anyone they like. Don’t believe me? It’s in PACE...
Can Policing do better? Course we can. In my previous role I delivered training in stop search. Encouraged young cops to be polite when using their powers, finish the encounter on a positive, with a thank you or a handshake. I can encourage this all day long...
But as my Mum used to say, it takes 2 to tango. Yes officers have to be professional. The public also have a duty in solving these problems. The public have to accept Policing has a job to do. A job that involves stop and search, no matter what you think about it.
I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing the day would come where I didn’t need to put my hands in the pockets of the public. As long as kids keep killing kids, Policing will keep doing what we’ve always done....try and save lives by all means necessary.
