Page 37 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

searched through the use of section 60 powers. 103 This disproportionate trend
continued even at the height of the first wave of COVID-19 infections in the
UK, 104 despite crime levels having fallen in the period immediately before. 105

2.31 This steep rise in the use of the power has been further aided by a pilot scheme
that made the following changes to the authorisation process for section 60
powers:

a) reducing the level of authorisation needed for officers to deploy and
extend Section 60 from senior officers to inspectors and superintendents;
b) lowering the degree of certainty required by the authorising officer, so
they must reasonably believe an incident involving serious violence ‘may’
rather than ‘will’ occur; and
c) extending the initial period in which section 60 can be in force, from 15
to 24 hours, as well as the overall period from 39 to 48 hours. 106

2.32 This means that the police can exercise a power which significantly impacts
BAME individuals with greater ease and less oversight. In 2019, the Home
Office’s Equality Impact Assessment evaluated the section 60 policy change,
stating “it is likely that more BAME individuals are searched under this power
despite not committing any offences, and without being provided with
significant person specific justification for searches taking place”. 107 While
some weapons may be taken off the street, there is limited evidence that stop
and search reduces serious violence. At best, it shifts violence from one area
to another. 108 West Midlands Police, which, by contrast refused to adopt the

103 M. Townsend, ‘Black people ‘40 times more likely’ to be stopped and searched in UK’ The Guardian,
4 May 2019.
104 During the first COVID-19 lockdown (March to May 2020), over 20,000 young Black men (a quarter
of all Black 15 to 25 year old in London) were stopped by the Metropolitan Police, with 80% of stops
resulting in no further action – See S. Marsh, ‘Met police increased use of s60 stop and search during
lockdown’, The Guardian, 27 July 2020.
105 ‘Police continue to see falls in crime during lockdown’, National Police Chiefs’ Council, 19 June
2020.
106 ‘Government lifts emergency stop and search restrictions’ Gov.uk, 11 August 2019.
107 Home Office ‘Equality Impact Assessment Relaxation Of Section 60 Conditions In The Best Use of
Stop and Search Scheme’ p.10.

108 Tiratelli, M., Quinton, P., & Bradford, B. ‘Does Stop and Search Deter Crime? Evidence From Ten
Years of London-wide Data’, The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 58(5), September 2018, p.
1212–1231.

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