Police 'should ignore racial balance in stop and searches'

12 April 2012

Police conducting counter-terrorism stop and searches at airports should abandon efforts to achieve a "racial balance" in the numbers they frisk, an official report says today.

The Government's terrorism watchdog, David Anderson, QC, says that it is the "antithesis of intelligence-led policing" for officers to ensure that the numbers of each ethnic group searched are proportionate to their presence in the population.

He says that instead checks should be targeted at those groups most likely to carry out a terrorist attack.

Mr Anderson's comments come in his annual report to Parliament on the operation of terrorism laws.

They follow complaints that some travellers, such as elderly white women, are subjected to unnecessary searches to ensure that statistics do not appear "disproportionately" focused on Muslims.

Today, however, Mr Anderson says that the "schedule 7" powers, which allow searches to be conducted at airports and ports without the need to prove suspicion, have been "instrumental" in catching terrorists.

He cites examples such as Sohail Anjum Qureshi, 30, who was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2008 for four and half years for terrorism offences after being stopped at Heathrow en route to Pakistan to carry out a "two-to-three week" terrorist operation.

Another was Yassin Nassari, 28, from Ealing, who was sentenced to three and a half years in 2007 for possessing rocket-making instructions, after being detained at Luton airport.

Mr Anderson's report says that the value of such searches is "therefore scarcely in doubt". The report states: "To use schedule 7 in such a way as to reflect the ethnic balance of the population would be the antithesis of intelligence-led policing.

The proportionate application of schedule 7 is surely achieved by matching its application to the terrorist threat, rather than to the population as a whole."

He added: "If the police have intelligence that there may be someone dangerous on a flight from Pakistan, or a ferry from Northern Ireland, they must be free to concentrate their resources on that flight or that ferry.

"If people are stopped simply for the sake of balance, whether in terms of gender, age or race, the powers will not be used in the most effective way - or in the fairest way."

Mr Anderson does emphasise that a person's ethnicity or religion should not be used as the "sole reason" for a search and also suggests that some of the more "extreme" elements of the stop and search powers should be reviewed.

These include the right of police to conduct strip searches, take DNA samples, and to detain travellers held under the powers for up to nine hours.

He also reveals that 95 per cent of Special Branch officers, who carry out the majority of searches, will have been trained on "behavioural assessment" by the end of the year in a reform intended to help them pick out more accurately those who pose a potential threat.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT