'Stop and Search': The end of racial profiling?

Home Secretary announces big changes.

The Home Secretary Theresa May, spelt out in the House of Commons today a ‘comprehensive package’ that should fundamentally change the way ‘Stop and Search’ is delivered in England and Wales.

Presenting her case to the Parliament the Home Secretary stated:

Nobody wins when stop and search is misapplied. It is a waste of police time. It is unfair, especially to young black men. It is bad for public confidence in the police.

The proposals I have outlined today amount to a comprehensive package of reform. I believe that they should contribute to a significant reduction in the overall use of stop and search, better and more intelligence-led stop and search and improved stop-to-arrest ratios”.

Organisations such as ‘Stop Watch’, The Runnymede Trust,  Just West Yorkshire, Equanomics, Operation Black Vote and a whole range of other BME groups will be somewhat disappointed that our collective calls for Primary legislation to completely scrap certain sections of Stop and Search’ such as Section 60, which has proved largely ineffective, and counter-productive in its disproportionate focus on BME youths.

The Home Secretary  was quick to quick to respond to this particular concern stating that:

But I want to make myself absolutely clear: if the numbers do not come down, if stop and search does not become more targeted, if those stop-to-arrest ratios do not improve considerably, the Government will return with primary legislation to make these things happen.”

May  also announced plans for new officers to be vetted in their training on the use of ‘Stop and Search’, and also encouraging Police Forces in England and Wales to sign up to 'best practises' on Stop and Search.

Some of those best practices are already available in the Equality and Human Rights Commission's document 'Stop and think',  that  outlined which forces and how they reduced ‘Stop and Search’, whilst improving their rates of catching criminals.

My own feeling is that Theresa May MP would have liked to have gone even further than the announcements she has made today, but reported elements in Downing St have curtailed her plans.

Ultimately time will tell if these measures curtail what many see as the scourge of 'Stop and Search'.

Interestingly, in what is, in effect a long General Election campaign, the Labour party has yet to respond to May’s plans. Many will be looking at how the Labour party would halt the high levels of potentially illegal ‘Stop and Searches’ and its effect of racial profiling.

Simon Woolley