Theresa May clashes with Met police commissioner over knife crime

Home Secretary: Theresa May
Anderson Events Photography/PA Wire
Hannah Al-Othman22 October 2015
WEST END FINAL

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Home secretary Theresa May is at loggerheads with Britain's most senior police officer over the use of stop and search powers.

Ms May will slap down claims that knife crime is rising as a result of curbs on the policing method, dismissing them as "simply not true".

The comments will see her publicly oppose Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, who earlier this year suggested the reforms were behind a dramatic increase in knife crime in London.

Mrs May will also tell the National Black Police Association conference that more must be done to boost the number of women and ethnic minority officers, as she criticises four forces for having no black officers on the payroll.

When reforms of the stop and search system were announced in 2014, just one in 10 searches led to an arrest and black people were seven times more likely to be stopped than whites.

Most of the reduction in Met Police stop and searches relates to drug or property crimes, with "blade" stops accounting for less than 1 per cent.

Mrs May will say: "Stop and search is an important police power - and I will always back police officers who use their powers legitimately and accountably. But when stop and search is misapplied, and when people are stopped and searched for no good reason, it is unfair, it wastes valuable police time, and it damages the relationship between communities and the police.

"I know there are those who say that our reforms have gone too far, that the pendulum has swung too much the other way, and that reforms to stop and search are linked to knife crime in our capital and elsewhere.

"But to them I say this: stop and search reform has worked, it must continue, and - if you look at the evidence - it shows no link whatsoever with violent crime."

Latest figures show no force has a black and minority ethnic representation in line with the local population and four forces have no officers at all, while women make up just 28.2 per cent of all police officers.

The home Secretary will say: "Incredibly, four forces do not employ any black or black British police officers at all, and female officers make up 28% of all police officers but 51 per cent of the total population.

"This comes on top of existing statistics showing that there are only two BME chief officers in England and Wales, and 11 forces have no BME officers above chief inspector rank.

"This is simply not good enough. I hope these figures will provide chief constables with the information they need to identify areas for improvement and for the public and PCCs to hold them to account."

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