Stop and search tactics could fuel knife crime, police college warns

STOP and search tactics may increase knife crime, the College of Policing has told forces, as it warned the ploy could push young people towards violence.

A research briefing on the causes of street violence has been given to police in England and Wales at a time when knife attacks have reached record highs.

The police standards body acknowledged there was “consistent evidence” that stop and search helped reduce crime, but suggested that the benefit may only be short-term.

If an individual felt they had been unfairly stopped by officers, it could increase the risk that they later considered violence, the report said. The report comes only weeks after Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, increased police stop and search powers to help prevent stabbings.

Last night, Richard Cooke, the chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, dismissed the College of Police’s suggestion as “detached from reality”, adding: “Let’s deal in facts and not people’s feelings.”

In its official briefing, which brings together academic research, the College of Policing said: “While intelligence helps the targeting of stop and search, people’s willingness to provide information is likely to be affected by how fair they perceive the police to be in their use of this power. If contact with officers is felt to be unfair, analysis also suggests it can undermine young people’s perception that the police are ‘on their side’ … and is associated with increased risk that they consider violence to be an option in achieving goals.”

Mr Cooke said officers should only be concerned about preventing murders when they carried out a stop and search. He said: “The College of Policing seem to be detached from reality. My plea is: let’s deal in facts and not people’s feelings. Last year we had horrific murders of kids in the street in broad daylight. I’m far more concerned about those deaths than the feelings of those who are stopped.”