Police stop-and-searches soar - Yahoo! News UK

LONDON (Reuters) - The number of police stop-and-searches rose almost 9 percent in 2006/7 with black people seven times more likely to be quizzed than their white counterparts, figures show.

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In all, nearly a million people were stopped and searched by officers in England and Wales, the highest number for seven years, according to statistics from the Ministry of Justice.

The figures also revealed that black homicide victims were more likely to have been shot than whites or Asians, with 27 percent of murdered blacks dying in gun-related incidents.

In addition there was a large increase in the number of racist or racially motivated incidents.

The ministry said there were 955,000 stop-and-searches under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) in 2006/7, up almost 9 percent from a year earlier and the highest figure since 1998/9. The most common reason for a search was drugs.

Of those stopped, 16 percent were black and 8 percent were Asian. Relative to the general population that meant black people were seven times more likely to be stopped than whites, and Asians twice as likely.

There was also a large rise in the number of "stop-and-account", where people are asked by an officer to explain their actions, behaviour or presence in an area. This was up 33.6 percent from 1.4 million to 1.87 million.

There was less discrepancy between ethnic groups in this category, with black people twice as likely to be stopped as white people. The rate for Asians compared to whites was broadly the same.

But the figures showed that black people were 3.6 times more likely to be arrested than whites, slightly up from the previous year, and were less likely to receive a mere caution.

The use of stop-and-search has caused resentment in the past, with ethnic groups claiming they are victimised by police.

Chief Constable Craig Mackey, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) spokesman on stop-and-search, said they recognised the power continued to attract concern.

But he added: "Figures that point out disparity between black and white with respect to arrest rates, victims of crime, and stop-and-search do not provide any indication of the reasons for significant differences."

The report also said the number of racially motivated incidents rose to 184,000 in 2006/7 from 139,000 the year before, adding that most racial incidents still went unreported.

During 2006/7, 61,262 racist incidents were recorded by the police, up 3.7 percent, and there were 42,551 racially or religiously aggravated offences, a 2.6 percent increase.

In contrast, the number of stop-and-searches under the Terrorism Act 2000 fell from 45,000 to 37,000 in 2006/7, with over a third of police forces not using the power at all.

However, there was an increase in the number of people searched using anti-terrorism powers in nine areas including London where such searches were up 11 percent.

The Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents rank and file officers, said the statistics were meaningless without context, and did not show if the increases were as a result of a specific initiative.

"I expect to see a further increase in the number of stop and searches in the next year," said Simon Reed, the Federation's Vice-Chairman.

"People need to know that they cannot roam the streets freely carrying weapons without fear of being caught."

Welcome to the NEW WORLD ORDER........Police state is in full effect!!!!

We can't keep using Racism as an excuse because too many people use this as their TRUMP card..yes there might be the minority that would be innocent but in spate of this killings what other alternative would we suggest??..so far nothing seems to have worked..lets observe..before we jump on this as some sort of Police excessiveness

Bump^^^^^^^^^

I hear what u r saying and it must be a horrific situation with all those kniffings that is going on with the young people.

However, we can not drop the ball here and think that it is ok to stop any regular citizen and search them without any provocation. when you do that you also commit a crime. what ever happened to a person right to privacy. These law enforcement official are highly trained. there has to be better ways than to just come up to any individual and randomly search them.

When you get up your liberty you except Tyranny.
Don't let the fear get you. bcuz if you let them have this they will have something else. London is already Big Brother city. Cameras are at every corner and every section. next people will be asking for cameras in theor bedroom.

Then we will surely become like George Orwell's 1984

@Prince Hakeem
You got to come better than that..that's way to easy..please elaborate
I'm talking about stop and searching all youths across the board but in areas of high incidence of youth crime and killings obviously the searches would be moreintensified...
Remember some of this kids are not even criminally minded..so theres no saying who is or not carrying a blade..if a see a result of a slowdonw in the deaths of young black boys or even girls i would be reliefed wouldn't you???

@ChosenOne
I take it you from the US due to your comments on Gentification in Harlem??...I'm afraid its a whole different ballgame here...it has gotten to this before it can get better..if this fails then we can press on...

I'm with Blackpower on this one. I really can't think of what else to do. The stabbings need to stop. I even heard one youth the other day on the bus talking about how there was another yout that was looking to get shanked. This can't continue.

it's sad and i do feel for the families involved.... but it's only 15 teens, at least four times that many teens are injured and killed on the roads and at least five times that many women are killed in domestic related homicides, one baby a week is killed by a post natally deppressed mom... the disproportionate response will cause another brixton riot i tell you !