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Stop and Search in 2004: A Survey of Police Officer Views and Experiences

NCJ Number
215058
Journal
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer 2006 Pages: 83-103
Author(s)
Faiza Qureshi; Graham Farrell
Date Published
2006
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article presents findings from a survey of all police officers at one station in a town in southern England in July 2004, in order to determine their experiences with stop-and-search actions and obtain their views on the British Criminal Justice Act 2003, which extended police powers of stop and search.
Abstract
The findings show that officers' views on changes in stop-and-search procedures under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 did not show a consensus that the act made a significant improvement in stop and search procedures. Forty-six percent of the officers reported they had received training in stop-and-search procedures, and 40 percent said they had not; 14 percent indicated they did not know whether they had received such training. The 61 police officers on street duty reported they had made 443 stops in the last 5 working days; however, this included double counting for officers who worked as partners. Of the sixty-one officers on street duty, 11 percent did not make any stops in the last 5 working days. The 7 officers who accounted for most of the stops made 110 in their last 5 working days. The 54 officers who made at least 1 stop reported conducting 248 searches, an average of 4.6 searches in the last 5 working days. This constitutes a 56 percent average chance of a search during any given stop. Six in 10 of all officers (59 percent) reported having made at least 1 arrest as the result of a stop in the last 5 working days, making a total of 140 arrests. By far the most frequent grounds for suspicion on which the stop and search was based was that the person fitted the description of a suspect in a crime, followed by the person being on the street at a late hour. The survey yielded a 100-percent response rate. 5 tables, 5 figures, 7 notes, and 44 references