London stabbings: stop and search falls to two-year low amid spike in murders

Sadiq Khan and Met Commissioner Cressida Dick have both suggested stop and search could help tackle violent crime in London
Roland Hoskins
Robin de Peyer6 April 2018
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The number of monthly stop and search operations in London fell to a two-year low earlier this year, Scotland Yard figures show.

A total of 8,525 of the searches were conducted in the capital in February down from 11,406 the previous month.

That figure - which is the most recent monthly total available - compares to 9,907 in February last year, and 13,973 in February 2016.

However, the Met authorised 87 Section 60 searches in the last 12 months, compared to 30 over the previous period. They allow police to stop people without needing “reasonable suspicion”.

The overall decline in February happened despite a pledge by Sadiq Khan just a month earlier that police would "significantly" increase the use of stop and search to combat London's knife crime epidemic.

Since the Mayor made the vow, the capital has been hit by a wave of violent crime, with more than 50 killings in just over three months this year.

A total of 116 people were murdered in London during the whole of last year, leading to reports of the capital’s murder rate overtaking New York’s, where the use of stop and search has declined even more sharply than in London.

London's deputy mayor for policing and crime, Sophie Linden, told the Standard last month that stop and search is "an effective tool and we should expect to see it increase where knife crime is increasing". Met Commissioner Cressida Dick has also said the practice could help tackle knife crime.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton, who sits on the Commons home affairs select committee, said it was right that there had been a fall in stop and search use, but added that there was a "strong case" for increasing its use.

In the year 2011-12, 514,447 stop and search operations were carried out. This has fallen dramatically in the seven years since, with the most recent annual figures recording 115,557 searches.

Two teenagers were seriously injured in a stabbing in Mile End on Thursday night 
PA

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott rejected claims that increased stop and search would solve London's knife crime problems.

She said it would be worth risking alienating some communities if the tactic was shown to cut violent crime, but added: "The truth is, when stop and search was at full throttle, the main thing they found were small quantities of drugs.

London Murder investigations 2018

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"Evidence-based stop and search will always be an important weapon against all types of crime. But random stop and search has poisoned relationships between the police and the community, and in the end we need the cooperation of the community to deal with the issues."

Scotland Yard said in a statement that stop and search remains a "hugely important police power for protecting Londoners".

"It is an important power - especially in relation to tackling knife crime; resulting in over 3,000 arrests for weapon possession and for taking several thousand weapons off the streets of London each year," the statement said.

"The Commissioner has been clear that she will support officers if the number of stop and searches increases in the fight against knife crime. It is, however just one of a number of powers and tactics used by officers; tactics include centrally led operations, weapons sweeps, targeted test purchasing and plainclothes policing operations to tackle those who choose to carry knives."

The Evening Standard has contacted the Mayor’s office for comment.

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