Stop and search disproportionately affects black communities – yet police powers are being extended

The UK Government’s Beating Crime Plan unveiled last month gives police forces the option to permanently relax the rules around Section 60 stop and search; but Anglia Ruskin University Researcher Winifred Agnew-Pauley, and University of Kent PhD candidate Bisola Akintoye, argue that Section 60 is ineffective in reducing crime, and that the Government’s own assessment of the changes recognises they are likely to disproportionately affect black and minority ethnic people.
The UK Government has extended police stop-and-search powers as part of its recently announced Beating Crime Plan. This is despite concern that black and minority groups are more likely to be unfairly targeted by police when they have greater discretion over who they stop and search.

In the plan, the Government states that these measures are needed to prevent knife crime. But there is little evidence to suggest more stop and search solves this problem.

Lees verder via policinginsight.com