Police powers in action (1)
01 January 1991
Police powers in action
artdoc October=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.
Statewatch no 4 September/October 1991