The English and Welsh law allowing the police to stop-and-search people in “exceptional” circumstances was 29.7 times more likely to be used against black people than it is against white people in the past year. According to The Guardian, these stop-and-search stats represent “the worst international record of discrimination involving stop and search.” The report was compiled by the London School of Economics and the Open Society Justice Initiative.
The rate of stop-and-search for black people in England and Wales has nearly tripled since 2009, when police and government and everyone else agreed it was a serious problem that should be dealt with. Nice work, everyone!
Less than 0.5 percent of stop-and-searches led to an arrest for possession of a weapon.
On Friday, the IPCC conceded that stop and searches that yield no arrest were antagonistic and “highly intrusive”. A legal challenge that will ask the high court to rule section 60 “incompatible” with the European convention on human rights is under way. The case centres on a 37-year-old woman who claims she was targeted because she was black. Michael Oswald of Bhatt Murphy solicitors said there was clear statistical evidence that section 60 was being used in a discriminatory manner. He added: “There are not sufficient safeguards to ensure that the interference with individuals’ personal integrity and liberty that such searches entail is proportionate and in accordance with the law.”
The case follows the government’s curtailment last year of the police use of section 44 counter-terrorism stop-and-search powers, which also allowed officers to act against individuals without reasonable suspicion. Campaigners hope the home secretary, Theresa May, will pre-empt the legal challenge by moving to amend the law on section 60, introducing restrictions on its use. A recent report by the LSE and the Guardian cited stop and search as a factor in the August riots, a conclusion that persuaded May to order a national review of how police use stop and search powers.
Stop and search ‘racial profiling’ by police on the increase, claims study