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UK: "SUS" law to return: Stop and search back in London

01 January 2008

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Evening Standard (link)

Under current laws, put in place after the Brixton and other uprisings nation-wide in 1981, police have to have "reasonable suspicion" to stop and search a person. The government is to propose that in "designated areas" in a number of cities people can be stopped and searched simply on "suspicion" alone. See Background:

Stop and search figures released by the Justice Ministry for 2005-6 (England an Wales):

"Overall, Black people were nearly 7 times more likely to be searched than White people (this ratio is higher than the 2004/5 ratio of 6 times)."

Asian people were 2.1 times as likely as White people to be stopped and searched, compared to 1.8 times in the previous year. People in the ‘Other’ ethnic group were 1.7 times more likely to be stopped than White people in 2005/6, compared with 1.6 times in 2004/52.

In 2005/6 there were 878,153 stop and searches of persons recorded by the police under section 1 of PACE and other legislation (Table 4.1). Of these, 135,262 (15%) were of Black people, 69,274 (8%) of Asian people and 14,101 (2%) of people of ‘Other’ ethnic origin. Under PACE: Only 12% resulted in an arrest (no figures of given of those subsequently charged or convicted)

Background: Statewatch analysis: UK: Stop & search: Ethnic injustice continues unabated (pdf)

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