Here's my take on the current stop and search controversy.
Fifteen years ago, Glasgow, and west central Scotland in general, found itself with the unenviable reputation as being the murder capital of Western Europe. Knife crime was endemic, drug use rife and kids as young as ten were getting shit faced on Buckie every evening. Strathclyde Police responded to this with a strategy which included, amongst other less in-your-face tactics, a robust use of stop and search. To their credit, the strategy has proved pretty successful and knife crime is at a record low.
In 2013, however, Police Scotland was created. The then Chief Constable of Strathclyde, Stephen House, was appointed Chief Constable of the new Scottish force. Despite assurances that the new force would be responsive through its 14 divisional commanders to local needs and priorities, a number of Key Performance Indicators were established, by which all divisions would be measured. One of these KPIs was the number of stop and searches carried out.
The simple fact is, however, that the endemic knife carrying of west central Scotland simply does not apply elsewhere in the country. Kids in Inverness, Edinburgh, Dumfries and Perth don't reach for the machete when they go out to meet their pals. In my 30 years working in urban and rural areas in the east of Scotland, I rarely dealt with youths carrying knives. Not surprisingly, parents of young people now being rounded up and told to empty their pockets in areas where the police traditionally organised the teens five-a-side football, wondered what the **** was happening and why their generally well-behaved kids were suddenly getting turned over by the Polis.
Senior officers brave enough to call this policy for the public alienating bullshit it is, were removed from operational command positions until House had a compliant senior management to do his bidding. Huge pressure was put on Area Commanders (Chief Inspectors) to meet KPI targets, including removal from post if unsuccessful, and replacement by a former Strathclyde officer. The Lothians and Scottish Borders Division, for example, now has three ex-Strathclyde Superintendents from its management team of five. In that environment, it's little wonder that inspectors, sergeants and ultimately, constables, feel the heat as well.
'Consensual' stop and search is bullshit. With one or two exceptions, you either have reasonable grounds to suspect or you don't. If you do, the relevant statute gives you the authority to search someone. If you don't have reasonable grounds to suspect, the use of 'consensual' search is unethical, if not downright unlawful.
So that's it. The desire by a managerialist chief constable to apply a strategy designed for one part of the country to the whole, demanding the use of iffy powers and dismissing anyone who questions the policy. I'm surprised that no solicitors have seen the class action potential in this.
