Re. the concerns raised about the potential for a large rise in #stopsearch: it is of course quite possible that forces like the Met will choose not to do so.

1/

theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/j…
I personally don't foresee a return to the days of #opblunt2 and the wholesale use of s60 #stopsearch powers, which I think were used in the late 00s well beyond the original intention of Parliament (in 2007 I raised that with a Met Commander when I was working there).

2/
What makes me think that? Well for one thing, I know there are officers in positions of influence at the moment who express reservations about the efficacy of #stopsearch as a wholesale strategy. I think the culture has moved on (though recognise that could change).

3/
For another, the 'new' s60 policy is simply formalising a change that happened in 7 forces incl the Met in Mar 2019 before being extended to all 43 that Aug. That relaxed 'voluntary' changes introduced as part of the Best Use of Stop and Search Scheme. gov.uk/government/new…

4/
(A historical footnote: the Met police first introduced s60 restrictions in 2012, following the riots and under pressure from @EHRC regarding disproportionality. That included raising the authorisation level to Commander, which virtually stopped the use of s60 overnight.)

5/
At present - more than 2 years after the BUSSS restrictions were first relaxed - s60 accounts for less than 3% of searches conducted by the Met over the last 2 years

6/
Beyond London, recall that @WMPolice chose not to lower the level of authorisation for s60 to Inspector as part of the 2019 'trial', and that many forces don't even use the powers, or do so only very occasionally.

7/

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More from @gmhales

27 Jul
"The policing minister has defended plans to ease restrictions on stop and search powers for police, saying there is no feasible alternative if knife crime is to be tackled" #stopsearch

1/ theguardian.com/law/2021/jul/2…
Note the policy relates to s60 ('suspicionless') powers only. This is significant because many officers will tell you most stops done under s60 could be done under a suspicion-based power (eg s1 PACE), and therefore there often is a 'feasible alternative' to s60. @kitmalthouse
Worth adding that s60 powers are only used in a v small minority of #stopsearch

3/
Read 5 tweets
27 Nov 20
.@EssexBarrister I appreciated your contribution yesterday to the discussion on Sky. Wondered if I might offer a few pieces of the puzzle re disproportionality in terms of crime and policing?

1/
Nationally, '...among the broad ethnic groups, Black people were most likely to live in the 10% of neighbourhoods most deprived in relation to crime (27% of this group did so)’ ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-…

2/
In London (and elsewhere), areas (here boroughs) with more crime are allocated more police officers (TNO = Total Notifiable Offences)

3/ Image
Read 17 tweets
24 Nov 20
Here's a question: do police officers get any training on the risks of logical fallacies (and/or statistics...)?

What am I on about? Bear with me...

[Short thread]

1/
I attended (virtually) a meeting the other day at which several attendees described their/their colleagues' experiences of being stopped and searched by police during lockdown. Most of the cases related to s23 drugs #stopsearch-es. A couple had received media coverage.

2/
Eg 2 scenarios. (i) Black man sitting in his nice car (in a fairly deprived area) minding his own business, police stop next to him and ask him to get out for a s23 drugs search. (ii) Young people delivering food parcels #stopsearch-ed on suspicion of dealing drugs.

3/
Read 12 tweets
27 Jul 20
Some focus today on an increase in s60 #stopsearch by the Met during lockdown, eg in this article by @sloumarsh. I'd like to suggest that's a bit of a red herring.

1/5 Thread

theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/j….
Here are the MPS #stopsearch monthly totals by reason for search/power, fr June 2018 to June 2020. Huge increase in totals over the period, driven by drugs stops (s23).

The s60 totals are in red at the bottom (Jan'20 1.2k, Feb 505, Mar 710, Apr 292, May 1.4k, Jun 678).

2/5 Image
And here are the monthly percentages by reason for search/power for the same period.

s60 peaked at 27% in Aug18 and 12% in Aug19 (both Notting Hill Carnival). Was 4.6% in Jan 2020, 2.2% in Feb, 3.0% in Mar, 1.0% in Apr, 3.3% in May and 2.3% in June #stopsearch

3/5 Image
Read 5 tweets
10 Jul 20
I recently suggested the high rate of #stopsearch by the MPS (and population demographics) skews national disproportionality rate calculations. In this thread I'll post some numbers.



1/ THREAD
I thought it would be interesting to look at how London/the MPS compares to the rest of England and Wales combined.

2/
I've looked at the #stopsearch rate per 1,000 for black and white people only (to simplify the analysis) for 2018/19. I've removed BTP & City of London due to the impossibility/difficulty to calc rates.

I'm using the data posted at (8) on this page: ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-…

3/
Read 8 tweets
9 Jul 20
I've been thinking more about #stopsearch disproportionality. Thought I'd have a look at Lambeth, which is a borough with v high volumes of SS and lots of youth violence type issues.

1/ THREAD
The MPS #stopsearch dashboard shows SS during Jul19-Jun20 (total n=15,908) focused on males (93%), black subjects (61%), 15-24 yr olds (49%). Peak rate for 15-19 yr olds (309 per 1,000).

2/
Using the @LDN_data GLA 'Ethnic group projections (2016-based housing-led)' I looked at the estimated borough population structure, by gender, age and ethnicity, in 2019.
data.london.gov.uk/download/ethni…

3/
Read 14 tweets

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