THE\u00a0Home Secretary has been confronted over the use of stop and search – and quizzed on whether there is a link between fewer police officers using the power and a rise in violent crime.<\/p>\n
Ch\u00a0Supt Simon Ovens, the Met Police’s Borough Commander for Harrow, said he had seen a \u201cdisengagement amongst my officers, and a step back from using the power\u201d for fear of being disciplined.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
However he also said that at the same time he is seeing \u201can increase in the belief amongst young people that it\u2019s okay to [carry] a knife and drugs now because the chance of you actually being caught with them on you is far less\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Speaking at the Superintendents\u2019\u2019 Association of England and Wales Annual Conference,\u00a0Ch\u00a0Supt Ovens said when the Government said the misuse of stop and search was going to become a specific disciplinary offence \u201cthen it\u2019s no wonder that the reaction is that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He added: \u201cI can report for my community, and I work for Harrow in the north of London, which is the most racially diverse borough in London now, the community message to me is that my residents who are now 80% non-white are worried about young people on the streets with knives and drugs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThe message they are feeling from the Government is that \u2018we don\u2019t want to use stop and search because of the effect it has on community relations\u2019 where it seems to be having the opposite effect in my part of London.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He asked the Home Secretary: \u201cDo you see a connection between the marked reduction in stop and search with the increase in serious youth violence on our streets?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Mrs May said she was \u201cclear that stop and search is an important tool for the police,\u201d and that \u201cit is a tool that the police should be using.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
However the Home Secretary said \u201cstop and search was creating barriers between the police and certain communities\u201d and that \u201cabout a quarter of stops and searches were effectively being conducted illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
She said: \u201cYou cannot tell me that that is a situation that should be allowed to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Mrs May added: \u201cWhen stop and search is used well, when it\u2019s targeted, when\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0intelligence led, when it has community support, it is more effective. And I think that is very important.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThe problem that has now developed, and if I may say it\u2019s one of the frustrations that I find in a number of areas, is that because we\u2019ve said \u2018you mustn\u2019t use stop and\u00a0search in the way that you were doing it previously where 25-27% of stops and searches were effectively being done illegally\u2019, you\u2019ve got police officers saying \u2018well I can\u2019t stop and search then\u2019. That\u2019s not what we want.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI would say that it may be a job to be done in saying to individual police officers that what the Government has done is not about saying don\u2019t use stop and search, it\u2019s about saying use stop and search properly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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