Every life lost is tragic — but every life lost through violent crime is, in-part, a failure on the state.
As a Member of Parliament for the West Midlands, I’m regrettably no stranger to the devastating impact of knife crime. In 2023, the region recorded the highest rate of knife crime offences in England and Wales for the whole of 2023.
When I was recently elected, there was the tragic case of Jack Donoghue who was punched, kicked and stabbed in the chest in a four-on-one attack near Popworld in Solihull in 2020. In October last year, 17 year old Reuben Higgins was stabbed on Station Road in Marston Green near Solihull. And just last week, the friends and family of 12 year old schoolboy Leo Ross out their son to rest after he was stabbed in the stomach.
These devastating incidents, which are sadly far from isolated, means tackling knife crime must be one of parliament’s top priorities.
I am very clear that stop and search should play an important part in this. There is strong consensus amongst police chiefs and academics that it saves lives. That’s why I was pleased to lead a Westminster Hall debate on stop and search.
Stop and search allows the police to pre-empt dangerous situations and offers an effective and credible deterrent to violent criminals who might think about carrying a dangerous weapon. Critically, stop and search not only protects the public but might stop a potential perpetrator from crossing the Rubicon and taking part in illegal activity.
The case for stop and search is backed up by research from the Oxford Journal of Policing which found that stop and search can cut the number of attempted murders by 50 per cent or more. In my view, there is clearly a correlation between stop and search to drop by 44% over two years and the fact that, since he took office, knife crime offences in London has increased by 38%.
I also believe the work of Professor Lawrence Sherman, former Chief Scientific Officer for the Metropolitan Police, provides some useful insight into the effectiveness of stop and search. Sherman suggests we should focus on areas that are deemed to be ‘high-risk’ and that the effective use of stop and search requires it to be legitimate and supported by local people. To that end, he suggests that targeted stop and search in high-risk areas is necessary and has the scope to be effective. Crucially, Sherman argues that whilst using data and bias might be controversial, the need to protect people comes first.
Not only is stop and search an effective tool for the police, it is also overwhelmingly backed by the public. In a November 2022 survey, Crest Advisory found that stop and search has a high level of support all ethnic groups. It found that a total of 86 per cent of adult respondents supported the police’s right to stop and search someone if they are suspected of having a weapon on them. Of these, 77 percent of Black adults supported the police having the right to stop and search to find weapons and 71 percent to find Class A drugs.
Any debate about tackling the knife-crime epidemic must also focus on prevention. Stop and search can’t be the only tool the police and civil authorities have to tackle the scourge of violent crime. The slippery slope that drags too many people, particularly young boys, into violent crime must be broken.
I have taken interest in the Centre for Social Justices’ illuminating new report, Lost Boys, published last week. It highlights the issues that drive young boys, who overwhelmingly make up the numbers of victims of knife crime, into criminal gangs. These are certainly questions that need addressing if we are to wean people away from violent crime and the gangs that incite this sickening violence.
But this should not prevent us from having a serious and open debate about the role of stop and search. There’s clearly consensus that it can help to drive down crime and for that reason the police should have no shame in using it to keep the public safe.
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Source: Politics
