Comment: Search solution

The bureaucracy that accompanies police powers of stop and search is preposterous. The form filling was intended to prevent police targeting young black men disproportionately but in fact, "stop and account" simply wastes police time. So today's proposed changes are overdue. The Home Secretary is to announce plans that would remove the obligation for police to fill out a long form; instead, they will use digital machines to record details of the operation. In addition, commanders will be able to designate temporary zones where blanket stop and search can be carried out. Meanwhile, the Conservative leader, David Cameron, has announced that the Tories would carry out a review to see how they could make stop and search easier.

But if the police are to be liberated from existing constraints, they have to exercise them responsibly. Any liberalisation of stop-and-search powers will mean in practice that more black and Asian youths are targeted. It may be in their own interests as a community, given that young black men are disproportionately the victims of knife and gun crime, but the move risks creating ill feeling if the new powers are misused. Discretion and sensitivity from the police are better guarantors of community relations than bureaucracy.