BME 'Stop and search' figures down by 68%

The headline news that Black and Minority Ethnic ( BME) 'Stop and Search' figures are down by 68% since 2010/11 can only be greeted as good news. But it's not the whole story.

Whilst there is a significant voice within Polices Forces across the country that evidence based policing and 'policing by consent' should the norm, the last few months have some senior officers including the Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan Howe, and London Mayoral Candidate Zac Goldsmith, push back, wrongly suggesting that recent knife crime in the capital is a result of polices not being able to 'Stop and Search'.

First let's deal with why 'Stop and Search', in its present form had to be dramatically reformed. Just as an 'effective tool' that the police and others demanded they needed, the data showed it was shockingly ineffective. Not only did this dragnet approach not catch criminals but it wasted valuable time and money. Worse still, the Home Secretary Theresa May concluded what BME groups had known for years, that the 'Stop and Search' , which was being routinely implemented was illegal in its racial profiling of Black and Asian youths.

Announcing the news this today, the Home Secretary May stated that:

No one should be stopped and searched on the basis of their race or ethnicity.

Stop and search powers are vital in the fight against crime when used correctly. However, they must be applied fairly and only when needed - and in a way that builds community confidence rather than undermining it."

And that's the other point: For decades racial profiling of Black communities has resulted in more than 70% of Black youths-the overwhelming majority law abiding -being on a DNA database. The hundreds of thousands of Black and Asian individuals strongly felt/feel that the police are against them regardless of any crime being committed. The 2011 riots across the country, for example, was in part an outpouring of anti-police, anti-authoritarian feeling experienced by many.

So we welcome the drop in 'Stop and Search', but before we get over excited let's not forget that Black men are still 4 times more likely to be 'Stopped and Searched', than their white counterparts.

This is critically important because, with a police force challenged into changing its poor practices , and being under financial strain, they are pushing back, citing for example, when there's a knife crime incident that, somehow if they could go back to their old ways things might be different. Actually, the facts do not bear that out.

In the fall of BME 'Stop and searches',-a staggering 100,000- 99% were unrelated to knife crime. The vast majority of the decrease was due to curtailing the Police Forces activities characterised as their 'War on drugs', which has had its focus not on white city slickers and West End media types consuming class are drugs, but a dragnet approach on Black boys using marijuana.

In reality, Government statics clearly demonstrate that there is no correlation between those boroughs that have decreased stops and searches, and those with rises in knife crime. In fact the opposite is true.

Police Forces across the country are in the last chance saloon over BME, 'Stop and Search'. They are involved in voluntary scheme to increase transparency, and avoid racial profiling. Any back sliding on these and other objectives will trigger the last sanction the Home Secretary has which will change the law, outlawing the use of 'Stop and Search' Section 60.

Interestingly, Police Forces across the country should take a leaf out of the Northampton Police Force which has banned some officers for undertaking 'Stop and Search' because they fear they have not been implemented properly.
Like many race inequality battles we had over many years the gains we have fought and won can be very quickly rolled back and erased. Next month for example is the 50th anniversary of the Race Relations act, which eventually spawned the Commission for Racial Equality. Where is that now, and what that stood?

Simon Woolley