No suspicion, no better off

The new Stop and search powers bulletin (published 26 September 2024) saw a tiny decline in overall searches mask a sharp jump in the use of the controversial section 60 suspicionless power.

There was a -2% in overall searches conducted by the police in the year to 31 March 2024: forces made 535,307 searches, approximately 12,000 fewer than the previous year period (547,000 in 2022/23).

Drugs, as ever, is the reason for the vast majority of searches, changing little as a proportion of the overall makeup (-2 percentage points on previous year from 61% to 59%). The second most common reason remains offensive weapons at 16% (unchanged).

The number of section 1 (and associated legislation) searches reflects the overall picture: a 2% fall on the previous year (from 530,093 in 2022/23 to 542,720 in 2023/24), with almost negligible changes in the proportion of searches by reason.

However, the number of section 60 searches jumped up by a fifth on the previous 12-month period (from 4,280 in 2022/23 to 5,145 in 2023/24), despite fewer forces deploying the power (22 in 2022/23 compared with 18 in 2023/24). Avon & Somerset police is one force which bucked the trend by employing section 60 in the South West for the first time since before the COVID19 lockdowns. However, they found no weapons in any of its designated areas in 41 deployments over the year period to 31 March 2024.

From the additional 865 searches conducted under the power in England and Wales, forces uncovered weapons from 28 more people (71 in total in 2023/24), and made 6 more arrests compared with the previous year (212 in total).

Resultant arrests made up 4% of section 60 searches in the year ending March 2024, and those specifically for offensive weapons made up 1%.

For the second year running, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) conducted the highest number of stop and searches under section 60 CJPOA, accounting for 32% of the England and Wales total (+10 percentage points compared with the previous year).

Outcomes

In the year to 31 March 2024, 14% of searches resulted in arrest (75,953), a small increase in proportion on the previous year, and the highest rate since 2018/19. However, it remained the case that the vast majority of searches resulted in no further action (approximately 69%).

23% of stop and searches resulted in an outcome that was linked to the reason for the search, a slight increase compared with the year ending 31 March 2023 (22%). However, this varied greatly: 27.7% of drugs searches resulted in a linked outcome, compared with 3.3% of section 60 searches.

Needle in a haystack: Looking for dangerous weapons

As a tactic claimed by police to reduce violent crime, the capture of dangerous weapons still represents a small proportion of searches: roughly 3% (16,066) of all searches in 2023/24 resulted in an offensive weapon or firearm being found, similar to last year (15,087).

Of these, 3,221 (20%) were when the initial search reason was for drugs, although this represents only 1% of all drugs searches. Typically, searches carried out for firearms and offensive weapons had the highest find rate at 17% and 12% respectively.

As was much the case last year, the police justification that racial disproportionality in searches happens because Black people are more likely to be involved in violence is not borne out in the data on weapons searches. Across all ethnicities, roughly between 2% and 4% of stop-searches resulted in weapons being found on the individuals searched.

New data, new stories to tell

Alongside use of force figures, this year's release includes data on the removal of clothing and whether body worn video was used during searches.

Not all forces submitted data, so the figures should be treated with caution. Where it was provided:

• force was used in 28% (123,432) of 436,635 searches by 36 police forces;
• 2% (7,133) of 372,124 searches by 29% of police forces involved the removal of more than outer clothes;
• Black people were fully stripped in a stop and search at the highest rate (1.8%), compared with 1.6% for Asian people, 1.5% for people of mixed or other ethnicity and 1.2% for white people, and;
• 96% (374,139) of 394,538 searches by 33 police forces involved the use of a body worn video device.

For the first time, the ‘section 1 PACE’ category included suspicion-led stop and searches under section 10 of the Public Order Act, for items related to protest activity, as part of associated legislation. Searches under new powers – section 342E of the Sentencing Act 2020 (related to Serious Violence Reduction Orders) and section 11 of the Public Order Act 2023 (related to protest) – also make their debut in this year's statistical bulletin.

Searches under section 342E of the Sentencing Act were made by the four police forces trialling pilots of the Serious Violence Reduction Order, a civil order conceived as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. In the twelve months to 31 March 2024, there were a total of 66 searches recorded where the reason for search was given as them having a SVRO, of which:

• Merseyside police made 50 searches (no arrests)
• West Midlands police made 3 searches (no arrests)
• Sussex police made 2 searches (no arrests)
• Thames Valley police made 11 searches (no arrests)

The Met was the only force in England and Wales that used section 11 powers in the 12 months to 31 March 2024. No arrests were made from its use.

Defining disparities

There was a further closing of the disparity gap between white and Black people stopped and searched this year. Black people were searched x3.7 more often in 2023/24, down from x4.1 the year before and x4.8 the year before that.

However, when accounting for section 60 searches only, the ethnic disparity rates depend on the definitions given by those involved in the search. By the self-defined measure, it appears as though the disparity gap closed further between white and Black people in the last year (from x7.2 to x6.0 times more often), while it increased between white and 'other ethnicities' (from x1.6 to x2.7 more often).

However, the ethnicity of individuals in 19.3% of all stop-searches was 'not stated'. This discrepancy is magnified under section 60: 1,386 people searched under the power did not state their ethnicity, almost as many as those from all other ethnic minorities who were searched (1,475). The statisticians therefore combined self-defined ethnicity with that of police officer observations of individuals searched to calculate a more inclusive ethnic disparity ratio. Under this measure, the annual disparity rate between Black and white people searched is not only wider (x9.2 more searches of Black people per search of a white person), but increased on last year (when the differential was x8.7).

For a summary of the data, please find our thread on Twitter.