Stop-and-Search Powers Should Be Ramped Up, Says Home Secretary

Police officers stop and conduct searches on football supporters arriving to attend the UEFA Champions League Group D football match between Tottenham and Olympique de Marseille, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in London, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

Stop-and-search police powers are not “too controversial” and should be ramped up to crackdown on violence, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has told MPs.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Braverman said that the stop-and-search tactic can be used effectively with sensible safeguards.

Stop and search typically refers to the statutory police powers to stop and physically search an individual when there is a “reasonable suspicion” of a specific illegal activity or possession of a prohibited or illegal item.

The tactic has been criticised largely for allegedly singling out young black men.

Braverman rejected that idea, saying that “young black men are disproportionately more likely to be victims of violent crimes.”

“They are the ones most in need of protection. This is about saving the lives of young black men,” she told MPs.

Braverman referred to crime statistics, saying that while black people account for about 3 percent of UK’s population, almost a third of under-25s killed by knives are black.

“It is always bad policy to place unsubstantiated theories ahead of demonstrable fact—in this case, it would be lethal,” the home secretary argued.

In an open letter sent earlier to 43 police chiefs in England and Wales, Braverman indicated that the police had “her full backing” to ramp up use of the tactic.

She asked the chief constables to ensure that officers have the confidence to appropriately use “all stop-and-search powers, including the use of suspicionless powers.”

Home Secretary Suella Braverman arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on June 20, 2023. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said it was up to the police to decide where and when to use the tactic.

“If it’s contentious to politicians, we’ll brief them about why we’re doing it and try and persuade them why it makes sense to try and get their support. But if they’re not supportive, and we’re absolutely sure it’s the right thing, we’ll still do it,” Rowley told The News Agents.

The commissioner added that he didn’t take Braverman’s show of support as “an order.”

Braverman also told MPs that the government will amend the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which establishes the powers of the police to combat crimes while protecting the rights of the public.

The government seeks to clarify when the police should report cases of the use of suspicionless powers. Braverman added that she has mandated research on stop and search to collect more data and use it to hold the police accountable.

‘Blunt Tool’

In the year ending March 31, 2022, the Home Office recorded more than 526,000 stop and searches in England and Wales. In more than 66,000 cases, the tactic led to an arrest, with the arrest rate increasing by 13 percent compared to the year before.

Labour MP Dawn Butler questioned the effectiveness of stop-and-search powers in yielding offensive weapons or items linked to burglary, as well as the government’s urge to ramp up the use of the tactic.

“Crime statistics show that increased use of stop and search is driving the continuing increase in police-recorded possession-of-bladed-weapon offences, helping the police to save lives,” Braverman responded.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper argued that the government’s response to knife crime was “wholly inadequate.”

“Stop and search is an extremely important tool in the fight against knife crime but it isn’t the whole strategy,” Cooper told Braverman, adding that “too little is being done to divert young people away from violence and crime.”

Another opposition MP, Florence Eshalomi, called the stop-and-search powers on their own “a blunt tool,” and said that framing knife crime as a black issue is “lazy and a dangerous narrative.”

The Home Office data show that for the year ending March 31, 2022, individuals from a black or black British background were searched at a rate 6.2 times higher than that of those from a white ethnic group.

The home secretary told the MPs that stop-and-search powers are not a “disproportionate” or a “racist” tool.

“What is disproportionate is that black people are four times more likely to be murdered than white people. What is disproportionate is that young black men are more likely to be victims of knife crime than young white men,” she said.