Minister responds to name for police cease and search energy to be torn up

Police must be stripped of powers to stop and search people without reason to suspect them of a crime, MPs have demanded.

The call comes as “stark” data shows black people are almost four times more likely to be stopped than their white counterparts. Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson admitted the gap is “too high” – but defended stop and search.

She said the Home Office is looking at ways of using technology to scan people for concealed weapons from a distance. Plans are expected to be put forward in the coming months.

It comes after Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy called for officers’ right to stop and search people without suspicion to be abolished. She warned that black and ethnic minority groups are being “alienated”, despite being no more likely to commit crimes than white people.

She said: “Black people are four times more likely to be stopped and searched. Report after report reveals the severe problem of institutional racism in the Met Police. The overuse of stop and search to target black and ethnic minority communities is stark evidence of this.

“It’s resulted in entire communities feeling unfairly targeted, over-policed and alienated from law enforcement. This doesn’t serve anybody.

“Black and ethnic minority people are no more likely to commit crimes than their white counterparts. They are no more likely to in possession of illegal substances or objects than their white counterparts but they’re more likely to be stopped and searched – and it’s for this reason that they’re more likely to appear in criminal statistics.”

And referring to her own South London constituency, Ms Ribeiro-Addy said: “In areas like Brixton known drug dealers and criminals are not targeted by stop and search while young black men with no criminal records are repeatedly stopped.”

Dame Diana told a Westminster Hall debate that there are “stark ethnic disparities” – with current data showing black people are 3.7 times more likely to be stopped. She said it has dropped from nine times more, but conceded: “That number is still too high.”

She pointed to a drive to use technology as an alternative to stop and search. The Home Office minister said: “The Home Office is working with industry partners to develop systems that are specifically designed to detect knives that are concealed on a person.

“Phase one is expected to be delivered at the end of May.” She said more than 16,000 weapons had been taken off the street following stop and search in the year to March 2024.

And more than 75,000 arrests were made. She said that Section 60 stop and searches – that allow officers to use their powers without suspicion – are subject to “strict constrants” – with orders put in place if intelligence suggests serious violence may occur.

Lib Dem home affairs spokeswoman Lisa Smart called for these to be scrapped, stating: “We need a police force that serves and protects, not alienates and discriminates.”

Conservative shadow policing minister Matt Vickers said his party supports stop and search. He told MPs: “I hope the Government will commit to ensuring stop and search remains a key tool in the fight against crime.”