Guardian (UK): Police stop and search 'not cutting knife crime', new figures suggest

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/24/stop-and-search-operation-blunt/print


Police stop and search 'not cutting knife crime', new figures suggest

Alan Travis guardian.co.uk, Sunday 24 January 2010 19.18 GMT

• Criminologist casts doubt on efficacy of police power
• Calls for amendment to way section 60 is operated

There is little connection between the use of stop and search powers by the ­Metropolitan police and reductions in knife crime, according to new figures ­analysed by a leading criminologist.

Professor Marian Fitzgerald says that in the case of one London borough – Southwark – a huge expansion in the use of "section 60" stop and search powers has actually been accompanied by an increase in knife crime. The section 60 powers under the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act allow the police to search anyone without needing to have grounds for suspicion in a designated area at a specific time where they believe there is threat of serious violence.

Fitzgerald also says the recent European court of human rights ruling that section 44 counterterrorist stop and search powers are unlawful because they are too widely drawn and lack adequate safeguards should also apply to section 60 searches.

This exceptional power was introduced to deal with football hooligans and gang fights and has been rarely used over the past 15 years. But a decision by the Met to use section 60 searches as part of their drive against knife crime means that since May 2008 there has been a huge expansion and they have become routine in many London boroughs. The latest figures show the number of section 60 searches has rocketed from 4,400 in 2003-04 to more than 80,000 in 2008-09....