Home Office Releases Latest Stop & Search Figures

• The Metropolitan Police Service and the British Transport Police accounted for 94 per cent of all Section 44 uses in Great Britain in the year ending 30 September 2010. The proportion of those stopped and searched under these powers during the same period who classified themselves as Asian or Asian British averaged 19 per cent over the year (up 4 percentage points from the previous twelve months) and those self defined as Black or Black British was an average of 10 per cent (the same proportion as the previous twelve months).

• A total of 898 persons were stopped and searched by the Metropolitan Police Service in the year ending 30 September 2010 under Section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000, down from 1,929 in the previous twelve months, a fall of just over half (53%). The proportion of persons stopped and searched who classified themselves as Asian increased from 20 per cent in the year ending 30 September 2009, to 30 per cent in the year ending 30 September 2010. The proportion of persons searched describing themselves as Black or Black British fell from 12 per cent to 10 per cent over the same period.

• The year ending 30 September 2010 saw 249 arrests resulting from Section 44 stops and searches in Great Britain, an arrest rate of 0.5 per cent. Two of these arrests were identified as terrorism related. A further 30 arrests were made by the Metropolitan Police following stops and searches under Section 43 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Last October, the annual Home Office bulletin on the use of anti-terror powers showed that from the 101,248 searches carried out under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, not one person was arrested for terrorism-related offences. This time around, out of nearly 46,000 searches, only two have resulted in arrests for terrorism-related offences (although the details of whether they were convicted of anything are not given)

Stops and searches under Section 44 were last January ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights for their arbitrary and widespread usage, as well as their disproportionate targeting of blacks and Asians.

As part of the Home Office review of counter-terrorism and security powers, the government announced that existing stop and search powers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 were to be replaced with a “much more tightly drawn power to stop and search without suspicion” to bring them in line with the ECHR ruling. Details of the new rules can be read here.

Although the criteria governing Section 44 have been tightened, the government has also introduced changes under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), which result in a substantial reduction of the information recorded on stop and search forms.

From the Runnymede Trust website:

“Controversial changes to stop and search powers were passed in parliament yesterday, despite campaigns from race equality and human rights organisations. The changes include a substantial reduction of the information recorded on stop and search forms, which will now make it impossible to measure repeat stops and harassment; the effectiveness of a stop and search; and any misuse of force. In addition, police will no long be required to record the use of ‘stop and account’, which will make it impossible to determine if stop powers are being used proportionately and remove local community scrutiny of stop practices.”

“Citing figures that Black people are 7 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched, Shadow Policing Minister Vernon Coaker suggested that the changes to stop and search may worsen disproportionality, and also drew attention to the even greater ethnic disproportionalities under the use of Section 60 (a stop and search power used where there is a threat of serious violence that does not require reasonable suspicion).”

Last year witnessed the threat of legal action from the Equality and Human Rights Commission to five police forces, including the Metropolitan Police, over their disproportionate use of stop and search powers against people from ethnic minorities. How are organisations such as the EHRC expected to hold such forces to account for any future misdemeanors, given the diminished accountability of police forces which is expected to result from the amendments to PACE?