Police powers in action
01 September 1991
The only measure of the exercise of police powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) in England and Wales is the annual Home Office statistics. The statistics cover stop and searches road-blocks extended detention and intimate body searches.
The publication of figures for 1990 in July confirms another leap in the "stop and search" figures - from 202,800 to 256,900 - and another drop in the percentage subsequently arrested - from 17% in 1986 to 16% in 1989 and to 15% in 1990.
These stop and searches were made by the police on the grounds of suspected stolen property, drugs, firearms, offensive weapons and other offences.
The figures given for "stop and search" do not include the many instances where a person is stopped and questioned (and possibly arrested) but is not searched.
No. of stop and searches Arrests (1986-1990)
1986 109,800 18,900
1987 118,300 19,600
1988 149,600 23,700
1989 202,800 32,800
1990 256,900 39,200
In 1988 the Home Office felt obliged to comment on the rise of 31,000 stops and searches over 1987. This it said was largely due to "increases in recorded searches in the Metropolitan Police District (London)..(and) to more comprehensive recording". No reasons are given for the subsequent increases of 53,000 in 1989 and 44,000 in 1990.
The only way of measuring the "success" of stop and search would be the figures for subsequent arrests charges and convictions but only the figures of those arrested are given (15%). Moreover, 227,719 people were stopped and searched and not arrested.
By far the greatest use of stop and search is in the London Metropolitan Police District (Met):
No. of stop and searches Arrests London (1986-1990)
1986 35,260 6,092
1988 79,872 12,739
1990 150,252 22,055
The Met which comprises just 20% of police strength was responsible for 32% of stop and searches in 1986, 53% in 1988 and nearly 60% in 1990.
Road checks, or road-blocks, are carried out where it is thought a vehicle might be carrying a person who: has committed a serious arrestable offence, or was a witness to or intending to commit a serious arrestable offence or who was unlawfully at large. A total of 298 road checks involving 38,700 vehicles were carried out in 1990. There were only 18 arrests connected with the reason for the road check and 33 arrests for reasons not connected with it.
In 1990 a total of 542 people were detained by the police for more than 24 hours of whom 465 were released without charge and 77 were detained for longer periods. Four hundred and one people were detained without charge under warrant for more than 36 hours; of these 324 were eventually charged.
Intimate body searches involving the examination of body orifices such as the anus or vagina were carried out on 51 people in custody. In only 4 cases was the suspected item found.
Twenty-nine of the 43 police forces covered carried out no intimate body searches; 22 of the 51 searches were carried out in London.
Statistics on the operation of certain police powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act England and Wales 1984 Home Office Statistical Bulletin 15 July 1991.