Page 26 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

College of Policing report finding that there is a “weak” association between
the use of stop and search and its impact on crime levels. A recent Home
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Office publication highlighted that of all the stops and searches undertaken in
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the year ending March 2020, 76% resulted in no further action. Moreover,
only around 20% of the MPS’ stops result in an outcome that was linked to the
59
reason for the search.
2.12 Section 60 powers are primarily used in deprived areas, which often have a
higher population of Black people. These stops are even less effective, with
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merely 4% resulting in arrest. Indeed, the cost of the policy is steep, both in
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terms of significant resources deployed, as well as with respect to the
detrimental impact on the confidence of BAME communities in the police.
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As a result, BAME communities, not least the victims and witnesses of crime,
are understandably reluctant to co-operate with a police force that acts in such
a disproportionate fashion. This risks crimes going unreported, and
unaddressed, resulting in increasing damage to communities alongside
associated policing costs.

2.13 The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has also added to these
criticisms, noting that the legitimacy of stop and search is undermined by, for
instance, the MPS’ lack of understanding around disproportionality, poor
communication, the frequent use of force over seeking cooperation, the failure
to use body-worn video cameras during incidents and continuing to seek

crime control”: Tiratelli, M., Quinton, P., & Bradford, B. The British Journal of Criminology, Volume
58(5), (September 2018), p. 1212–1231, available at Does Stop and Search Deter Crime? Evidence From
Ten Years of London-wide Data
57 M. Tiratelli, P. Quinton, and B. Bradford, Does more stop and search mean less crime ?, (College of
Policing, 2017) p. 4.
58 Home Office ‘Police powers and procedures, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2020’,
(October 2020), p.1.
59 See Metropolitan Police Service Stop and Search Dashboard and Full Fact, ‘Stop and Search in
England and Wales’, 2019.
60 ‘Section 60 stop and search powers’, Runnymede.

61 Home Office, ‘Police powers and procedures, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2020’, p.
13.
62 V. Dodd, ‘Police losing legitimacy among people of colour, top officers say’, The Guardian, 8
September 2020.

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