Senior Avon and Somerset Police officer defends drop in Stop and Search use
It comes with fatalities from knives up more than double across the force area
A senior Avon and Somerset (AS) Police officer has defended a drop in the use of stop and search powers, saying it is about "quality over quantity".
Greatest Hits Radio has been speaking to neighbourhood chief inspector Vicks Hayward-Melen on the issue, after we revealed earlier this month that the tactic was used more than 700 times less in 2023, compared to 2019.
That is despite the number of fatalities from knives increasing by 160 per cent over the same period.
The West Country is currently in the grip of a knife crime epidemic, with four people including three young boys having lost their lives in Bristol since January.
Last year 13 people were killed across Avon and Somerset including teenage boys in Bristol and Bath.
"First and foremost, stop and search has to be used legitimately," said chief inspector Hayward-Melen, who leads the force on stop and search.
By law, stop and search powers can (with some exceptions) only be used when a police officer has "reasonable grounds" to suspect a person of carrying either illegal drugs, a weapon, stolen property or something which could be used to commit a crime.
"That's what we hear from our communities, that there is support for the use of stop and search to take illegal items and things that cause harm off the streets, but that it needs to be done fairly and professionally," Hayward-Melen continued.
"We are supportive of the use of effective stop and search...but we need to make sure that when we are stopping somebody, we give them reasonable grounds...
"We are very much (in favour of) quality over quantity."
According to figures obtained by Greatest Hits Radio via a Freedom of Information request, stop and search powers were used across Avon and Somerset 4,575 times in 2023, compared to 5,289 times in 2019.
That is a drop of 714, though the 2023 figure is a slight increase on the 4,471 times stop and search was used in 2022.
It was used 5,256 times in 2021 and 6,529 times in 2020, which is nearly 2,000 times more than last year.
However, chief inspector Hayward-Melen says the 2023 figure is about where she would expect it to be.
"This (a drop in the use of stop and search since Covid) is something we have seen nationally, it wasn't just specific to Avon and Somerset," she said.
"The thing that is particularly important to highlight is that those dates where it was significantly higher correlated with Covid and lockdown, so there were officers that weren't responding in the normal way that we do to calls for service...
"So those officers with their time, when there was somebody out on the street when everybody else should be in houses, we saw an increase in stop and search because of the circumstances and the environment of lockdown...
"So actually its a bit of an anomaly, that increase over those periods.
"I believe we have returned to a state of normality now in Avon and Somerset, where over the last two years we have averaged around 450 to 550 stop and searches a month."
An increase in fatalities
On 14 February 16-year-old Darrian Williams became the third teenage boy to lose his life in Bristol to a knife, since the start of the year.
The next day AS Police announced a new operation to tackle serious youth violence, in which enhanced stop and search powers were granted for an initial period of 24 hours (later extended to 48 hours).
This meant officers were able to stop people during that period across specific areas including Bristol City Centre, St Pauls and Easton, without reasonable suspicion of criminality being required in advance.
During the 48 hour period 33 people were stopped by officers but no weapons were found.
Responding to the situation during a visit to the West Country earlier this month the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Greatest Hits Radio that overall, violent crime nationally is down.
"Of course there is more to do," he said.
"First and foremost is putting more police officers on the street, so 20,000 across the country...so that will help.
"Then you need to give the police officers the powers they need and that's why we've been keen to champion stop and search."
Chief inspector Hayward-Melen says it is down to everyone to help reduce the number of tragedies.
She said: "It is all about the sharing of information and giving us and our partners what we need to be able to go and use the powers that are given to us....to be able to solve things...
"We know we're never going to be in those spaces fully where we know exactly what's going on, that's the beauty of communities in a way.
"So when it comes parents, carers, guardians, schools, all of whom we work with and are having conversations with, it's to reassure them that we are listening and we are responding and if they've got any worries (about the situation) just contact us and speak to us."