A dramatic rise in stabbings is due to the reduction in Stop and Search checks on youths.
Despite this, Home Secretary, Theresa May, is still threatening to reduce Stop and Search further while Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe sends confusing messages to his officersby saying there should be an increase in targeted searches amid a near two percent jump in teenage knife crime in London in the last year and concerns over a recent spate of vicious attacks in Southwark.
Sir Bernard said that over the last three months there had been a rise in stabbings and that had led to a review of Stop and Search – if we are getting to the stage where people think they can carry knives with impunity that can’t be good for anyone.
Stop and Search is a reasonable tactic when used in the right way.
There is an argument for more use of Stop and Search focused on high knife crime areas and targeting gangs.
Activists argue that there is no evidence to support the view that there is any correlation between the number of searches undertaken and stabbings.
Yet one thing is clear, the victims who have died of stabbings would be alive today if their attackers had been searched and disarmed before reaching their victims.
Reg O’Donoghue