Complaints against officers

[Fedster + 1,307]

Report says Sadiq Khan's current strategy 'reads as a wish list' rather than a well-thought out plan.

A refocusing of stop and search on finding knives instead of drugs could pave the way for an improved weapons strategy.

Conservative member of the London Assembly, Shaun Bailey, has proposed a comprehensive approach to tackling knife crime in the capital, designed to replace the Mayor’s current knife crime strategy, which Mr Bailey says is not working.

The ‘Londoners’ Lives Matter’ report points out there should be greater focus on knives, after he found 15 per cent of stop and searches currently target knife crime, compared with 60 per cent for drugs.

Mr Bailey says he wants to see police refocus their efforts away from “petty” drug offences and to carry out more knife searches on individuals – an approach he believes communities historically opposed to stop and search want to see.

The report also points out young black males are ten times more likely to be stopped and searched for drugs than young white males, despite black males statistically being half as likely to use drugs.

London Assembly member Shaun Bailey said: “Knife crime destroys families, fractures communities and puts a stain on our city. Unfortunately, the Mayor’s policies are having no impact and we must seek a new approach.

“Trust among the black community around stop and search is low. With the number of people being patted down for petty drugs offences, when the statistics show the black community is far less likely to be using drugs, it is clear why.

“I do believe though there is a desire for increased searches if they focus on knives and not drugs. This refocus should be the catalyst for a major overhaul of our approach to knife crime.

“With 80 people killed last year, this goes way beyond party politics and I am urging the mayor to work with me to address the shortcomings in the current strategy.”

It also criticises the Metropolitan Police Service for being “slow” at introducing new technology. It says: “Technology is changing all the time and too often the Metropolitan Police Service are late embracers of such change.”

To overcome this issue it suggests the force invests in Smart CCTV and other Artificial Intelligence systems.

A focused approach on youth violence with the production of a five to ten-year prevention strategy with targets and regular progress monitoring has also been advised alongside a public health strategy, which could cut knife crime in London by a third, according to research.

However, Inspector Andy Walker of the Met’s Stop and Search continuous Improvement Command said crime is not proportionate and neither is the use of stop and search.

In September 107 knives were seized across the capital following the use of stop and search.

Insp Walker said: “Stop and search is a hugely important power in the fight against knife crime and we know the majority of the public support it as long as our officers are professional and accountable.

“The causes of disproportionality are complex and it is important we understand those causes and scrutinise them to ensure stop and search is not used in a discriminatory manner.

“We are keen to encourage as much direct interaction as we can on this issue and have recently introduced a process for showing body worn video footage to local community monitoring groups.

"We will continue to work with our communities and stakeholders to improve the quality of encounters and ensure that stop and search continues to protect Londoners."

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[Growley + 2,436]

If the grounds are there, they're there. There is no way we should be ignoring reasonable grounds just because of politics.

Additionally, in areas highly affected by knife crime, drugs and knives often go hand in hand. I've lost count of the amount of times I've found a knife through drugs searches; knives that would otherwise potentially still be on the streets.

[Sceptre + 2,701]

Indeed one would expect far more drugs searches that weapons searches, given that you can walk past someone and smell cannabis but you can't smell a knife. Weapons searches are by their nature much more intelligence-lead.

[James255 + 26]

Just now, Sceptre said:

Indeed one would expect far more drugs searches that weapons searches, given that you can walk past someone and smell cannabis but you can't smell a knife. Weapons searches are by their nature much more intelligence-lead.

You can maybe smell a knife if you are a dog.

[Sceptre + 2,701]

Believe it or not someone already thought of that cunning plan  link.

[Zulu 22 + 4,571]

1 hour ago, James255 said:

You can maybe smell a knife if you are a dog.

Only if it has been used to cut drugs.

 

[Hyphen + 693]

This has infuriated me and actually sums up what is wrong with our society.

Possession of drugs is a CRIME. If people don’t like it then that’s tough. If the ground are there and the search is reasonable then great. If not then that needs to be addressed.

Can people also please get it in to these idiots’ heads, Police officers don’t search people because they are black! I wish they would stop bringing up this nonsense. 

Instead of all this rubbish maybe just try and get behind the police without agendas and bias. 

[sierragolf95 + 55]

Officers must be going dizzy with the amount of conflicting information coming out. If I was told I was to forget about drugs and only search for weapons they'd be told where to go. Granted our searches in the security industry are all voluntary (kind of not really but still) 

 

[Mac7 808]

A politician proposing a knife crime strategy?!? Isn’t this the job of the police.

[MerseyLLB 8,426]

I agree knives are seemingly becoming more prevalent again...but most of the time we will be searching for knives in response to calls for service or live time intelligence.

The issue we have is resourcing.

Where i work we have probably at least one knife or weapon report a day. 

By the time the job gets resourced the footprint for the area search can be huge and you might have 1 singly or doubly crewed car attending.

Normally we get very vague descriptions for knife calls and so as the responding patrol you have to triage alot of people. We shave an urban street gang problem so if we get a report of black males in dark clothing we can't search everyone in the vicinity.

Sometimes I won't search anybody on my arrival at the area. Sometimes if 10 males starburst I pick one and try and catch them.

You've actually got a very good chance of getting away with carrying weapons as policing stands. The days of knife calls getting several response cars, a dog man, a traffic car and plain clothes proactive units are long gone.

[Growley + 2,436]

Out of interest, does anyone know where these statistics came from, regarding drugs use and ethnicity?

[Indiana Jones + 1,082]

12 minutes ago, Growley said:

Out of interest, does anyone know where these statistics came from, regarding drugs use and ethnicity?

And equally, I wonder what the knife vs ethnicity stats look like.

[Radman + 2,163]

I found knives numerous times when searching for cannabis... From small acorns grow large oaks and all that.

 

The little jobs tend to lead on to bigger crimes - any BTP cop will tell you a Ticket Irregularity as jokey as they are to get called to often do turn out to be far more than you initially expect when first called to them.