Stop and Search and Police Legitimacy

Police use of the power to stop and search members of the public has increased significantly over the last decade, a development intimately linked not only to the post 9/11 and 7/7 context of policing, but also to much longer term trends in policing methods, and indeed the ideology of police, in England and Wales. Despite its central place in both the theory and practice of policing, there is a dearth of in-depth, empirical, investigations into stop and search in the UK; this book aims to fill this gap.

Taking a decidedly quantitative, empirical, approach, this book examines the history of stop and search in England and Wales, data on its effectiveness, the problem of ethnic disproportionality, and evidence on public perceptions of stop and search, particularly as this relates to issues of fairness, legitimacy, cooperation and compliance. The authors argue that, as currently constituted, police stop and search practice in England and Wales is deeply problematic and in need of major revision at the level of policy and application.

Ben Bradford is a Career Development Fellow, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford and co editor ofJust Authority? (Routledge, 2012).

Michael Shiner is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science.