It has been revealed this week that the government are to begin a six-week public consultation throughout England and Wales, in regard to the use of “stop and search” powers.
Currently, police are only able to stop and search a subject, if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that they are guilty of some form of criminal behaviour; and due to poor search-to-arrest ratios throughout the UK, the Home Secretary has stated that it is “time to get stop and search right.”
The Home Secretary’s comments and the consultation come amid concerns that the current process not only damages public opinion of the police, but also wastes police time.
Research suggests that each stop-and-search takes up-to sixteen minutes to process; which last year equated to 312,000 hours – or 145 full-time police officers doing nothing else; and despite the time spent carrying out stop-and-searches, less than ten percent of the one million stop-and-searches being carried out last year, resulted in an arrest; although the search to arrest ratio varied from region to region.
Findings suggest that in Cumbria, the ratio is three percent, whilst in the West Midlands this rises to seven percent; and for Manchester and London, where the most stop-and-searches are performed, the ratio rises to eight percent.
Although the consultation is set to look into police powers relating to “stop-and-search”, the Home Secretary, Theresa May has insisted that the powers will not be scrapped – and a formal government response on the consultation is expected by the end of this year.