Setting the PACE

Of the various powers available to the police to investigate criminal activity, the power to stop and search people is arguably the most controversial. That controversy relates not to the existence of the statutory powers—or at least not to the existence of those stop and search powers for which “reasonable suspicion” is a prerequisite—since few would deny that they are an essential weapon in the armoury of the police officer, but rather to the exercise of such powers.

A considerable body of research—much produced on behalf of the Home Office— suggests that stop and search powers are sometimes used in a discriminatory and disproportionate manner by police officers who are uncertain as to their scope and illinformed as to the safeguards which exist to prevent their abuse. One of those safeguards is the information requirements which are set down in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE 1984), ss 2(2) and (3). In the recent case