Stop and Search Powers

“The police have a number of powers of stop and search. When using any power they must always have regards to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) codes of practice.” The effectiveness of the police stop and search procedures being used as a valuable tool in the detection of crime can be measured by looking at the role that stop and searches play in policing and the arrests they lead to. However their impact on the community and the negative image it has given the police force outweigh the results generated from stop and searches. It has been found through various reports such as one by The Equality and Human Rights Commission, arrests for serious offenses are less likely to follow from stop and searches however they do play some role in preventing crime. Although statistics show the impact is small. There are still concerns about the impact that stop and searches have had upon certain sections of the community. These are normally due to officer’s interactions with the public, such as the disproportionate amount of ethnic minorities that are detained under a stop and search.
Since the Police and Criminal Evidence bill 1982 was proposed there has been huge controversy. When the it was enacted as the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act it was described as the most significant landmark in the modern development of police powers” Chief Constable of Merseyside, Kenneth Oxford and former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir David McNee both shared similar views and felt that the new act would “go against the interests of the law abiding citizen and an effective police service.” There were also those that felt the new extension of police powers underlined in the act would “Para militarize the police” . Nearly 30 years later there is no conclusive evidence that either of these outcomes have happened. A stop is defined as when a police officer stops a member of the public but does not search them. A search is defined as when a police officer stops a

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