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Stop and searches rise 50 per cent to hit seven-year high

Police stop and search members of the public and assist another  - Jeremy O'Donnell /Getty Images Europe
Police stop and search members of the public and assist another - Jeremy O'Donnell /Getty Images Europe

Stop and searches by police have risen by 50 per cent in a year to their highest level in seven years, official figures show, as a Government adviser warned forces against "indiscriminate" use of the tactic.

Home Office data showed that stop and searches in the year to 2020 rose by 193,419 to 558,973 – the highest since 2013-14 when Theresa May, then the Home Secretary, put the brakes on the tactic amid concerns over disproportionate stops of ethnic minorities.

The figures also showed that the arrest rate in the past year fell from 16 per cent to 13 per cent, which meant the stop and search failed to produce evidence of an offence.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Michael Fuller, Britain's first and only black chief constable, who is now a non-executive director at the Home Office, warned of the risk of "indiscriminate" stop and search alienating communities.

He cited his experience as a head of the Trident operation in London to combat gun crime when he spent an initial 18 months talking to "suspicious" communities to secure their confidence, which led to police being "inundated" with high-quality intelligence.

He said: "We knew enormous amounts of detail about how and where they operated, how they got their guns, whether other people carried the guns, like girlfriends. The point was that we didn’t need to do stop and search. They were targeted stops.

"A lot of people say why not now do the same with knife crime, but that hasn't happened yet. You can tackle problems without doing massive stop and search operations that alienate whole communities to whom you then appeal for information.

"You alienate the very people who you need to support you, particularly if it's indiscriminate. Some people have this impression that I am against stop and search. That's not the case at all. I believe you should be effective in who you stop, search and arrest by stopping and searching the right people."

The Metropolitan Police service accounted for half of the increase in the number of stops and searches last year. All but three of the 43 forces in England and Wales reported an increase in stop and searches.