As Home Secretary Suella Braverman calls on forces to ‘ramp-up’ use of ‘stop and search powers’, data shows that Herts Police are using it LESS

As HOME Secretary Suella Braverman calls on police forces nationwide to ‘ramp-up’ their use of controversial ‘stop and search powers’, latest data shows that officers in Hertfordshire are using it LESS.

Data – just published by the Hertfordshire Independent Stop and Search Community Scrutiny Panel – shows that in 2022/23 the power was used 6949 times in the county.

And in almost one in every five cases – 18 per cent – it led to an arrest.

That’s lower than the 7573 ‘stop and searches’ recorded by the force in the previous year (2021/22).

And it’s a significant drop from the 25,112 ‘stop and searches’ recorded in 2013/14.

But – according to the data – each search now is more likely to lead to an arrest.

That’s because despite the higher number of searches recorded in 2013/14, the stop to arrest ratio was just 10 per cent – equivalent to one in every 10 stops.

According to the data, in 2022/23 a black person was four times more likely to be stopped and searched by police in the county than a white person.

And academics at the University of Hertfordshire have been commissioned to look at whether the powers are being used ‘in a discriminatory way’.

The data in the report also breaks down the areas of the county where the powers have been most used.

Dacorum recorded the highest number of stop and searches, with 960 in 2022/23 – and Three Rivers the lowest, with 283.

In St Albans there were 916 recorded, Stevenage 888, Watford 784 and in Broxbourne 622.

Elsewhere there were 587 in Hertsmere, 582 in North Herts, 560 in East Herts and 458 in Welwyn Hatfield.

Across the county 31 per cent of all stops – that’s almost one in every three – were reported to have had a ‘positive outcome’. That means it led to an an arrest or an ‘out of court disposal’, such as a community resolution or conditional caution.

The positive outcome rate did vary slightly across the county – with a rate of 38 per cent in Welwyn Hatfield, 36 in Hertsmere, 35 in St Albans, 34 in Three Rivers, 30 in East Herts, 30 in Watford, 29 in Broxbourne, 29 in Dacorum, 28 in North Herts and 28 in Stevenage.

Dacorum was the area that recorded the highest number of stop and searches ad the lowest rate of positive outcomes – with an 18 per cent increase in the use of stop and search in the area this year.

But the report acknowledges that between June and the autumn there had been an intelligence-led, preventative youth knife crime operation.

And this, it was reported, had included an increased police presence, ‘targeting of both offenders and their exploiters’.

During the year the Hertfordshire Independent Stop and Search Community Scrutiny Panel – made up of 24 volunteers – looked at 339 records of stop and searches and 18 pieces of ‘body worn video’ footage.

According to the annual report the panel had ‘no serious concerns’ about the use of stop and search in Hertfordshire.

As part of their role they scrutinise officer’s records, in a bid to determine whether the stop and search was lawful.

According to the report they could be ‘confident’ in 66.1 per cent of reports they scrutinised.

Most ‘not confident’ judgments were because reports ‘lack the necessary detail’.

Panel members also raised concerns of a record being ‘a copy and paste’ of another.

“In most cases the Panel will state they are not confident if they find identical records (a copy and paste record),” says the report.

“The grounds of the stop and search should be relevant to the individual being searched and it is unlikely that the grounds for searching multiple individuals will be identical.”

Overall the report – which will be presented to a meeting of the Hertfordshire Police and Crime Panel on Thursday (June 22) – has been broadly welcomed by Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd.

And in his foreword to the report, he says: “I personally take confidence in the findings presented by the Panel in this report, which shows that for the second year running there has been a reduction in the number of stop and searches undertaken with an improved ratio of both arrests and positive outcome rates.

“This suggests that the power is being used both legally and legitimately.

“As is the case for many forces, Hertfordshire’s data suggests that there is disproportionality in the use of stop and search across different communities.

“As I stated last year, it is vital that here in Hertfordshire we understand whether this is used in a discriminatory way so that I can take any necessary actions with the Constabulary to reduce this.

“In February, I awarded the University of Hertfordshire a research contract to explore whether there is evidence of any potential discrimination by officers.

“I am pleased that the Panel have welcomed this evidence based approach to better understanding the issue and I look forward to discussing the findings and any recommendations with them later in the year.”

• Anyone who lives works or studies in Hertfordshire and would be interested in finding out more about becoming a member of the Stop and Search Panel can do so by emailing them here.