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21 July 2023 / Neil Parpworth
Issue: 8034 / Categories: Features , Criminal , Public
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Stop & search: misunderstanding the brief?

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Neil Parpworth outlines the latest thinking—& some potential inaccuracies—from the Home Office on stop & search powers
  • On 19 June, the home secretary Suella Braverman gave a statement to the House of Commons on stop and search, confirming that she wanted police forces to ramp up the use of such powers.
  • Her statement, however, contained a number of inaccuracies, including whether such a power may be used to stop and search children, and whether the police have the power to impose serious violence reduction orders on individuals.

Currently, hardly a day seems to pass without an aspect of policing appearing in the news headlines. Sometimes, the stories relate to the conduct of individual officers who have taken advantage of their position to commit very serious criminal offences. On other occasions, they have involved public statements by senior officers relating to matters within their own force, such as issuing apologies for failings—for example, the recent admissions that the Scottish Police Force and the Avon and Somerset Constabulary are both ‘institutionally racist’.

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