EVIDENCE-BASED POLICING

Evidence-based Policing

Evidence-based Policing

Introduction

The public are worried that the increasing power of the police to stop and search are an infringement of civil liberties. Of particular concern is recent legislation (e.g., the Terrorism Act (2000)) that allows a search to be lawful when the constable has no grounds to be suspicious of the person searched. An opposing view is that such powers are necessary to uphold the rule in a society that has become increasingly aggressive.

Evidence Based Policing

The 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act was particularly motivated by the desire to "head off" the demands for and improvement in the mechanisms of police accountability , by introducing reforms which were designed to enhance the extent to which the police operated with the consent of the general public. However, its now disputed use has arguably caused more conflict than any other policing strategy. Almost 5 years following the MacPherson report into the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, stop and search remains one of the most contentious issues in British criminal justice.

In 2001, Home Office statistics showed that black people were five times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people. Now, that particular factor has now risen to over eight times as likely, something that greatly dismays race campaigners - and many police officers working hard to build community relations. Since April 2003, the police are required to keep a record of all incidents of stop and search procedures being committed (Code A paragraph 4.1, 4.2). The police are also required to give a copy of that record to the individual that was being searched. Unfortunately, this provision of the Act does not seem to be enacted. This falls under the first section of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.

PACE and the public

Nowadays, cases made against the "regime" are frequent. The one off or even repeated action of stop and searches are now arousing suspicion among the public. It also raises feelings of anger, victimisation, resentment, embarrassment, nervousness, and a growing lack of trust in the police. Also, there is evidence of underhand "tactics" being conducted by the police in order to make the detainee react to being searched, their (the police) attitude towards the job and the use of provocative language towards the detainee pushes the already delicate relationship between the police and the public to the limit. Then why is nothing being done about it? ...