A coalition of race equality organisations has sent an open letter to home secretary Priti Patel, expressing its grave concerns around her order removing the enhanced section 60 authorisation conditions introduced by The Best Use of Stop and Search Scheme (BUSSS). Data for the period April 2017 to March 2018 revealed that only 2% of stop and searches carried out under section 60 led to an arrest for an offensive weapon.
The section 60 stop and search pilot study in seven areas of the UK started in April 2019 and was meant to have concluded and been independently assessed in September 2019. According to the Office of National Statistics, in the time of the pilot, stop and search increased from 19% – 22% but so too did knife crime and the number of homicides.
Both the home secretary and the prime minister have rolled out this change of policy nationally, without awaiting the results of pilot study.
You can download the open letter and press release below.
*UPDATE 03 SEPTEMBER*
StopWatch UK chief executive Katrina Ffrench was interviewed on BBC radio stations following on from release of the CORE open letter:
- BBC Three Counties (1 hour 20 minutes in)
- BBC WM (West Midlands) (West Midlands, 1 hour 10 minutes in)
- BBC Radio Nottingham (20 minutes in)