Police Demand Is Hampering Stop And Search

THE sheer weight of demand on South Yorkshire’s Police Officers is hampering their ability to engage stop and search to keep the public safe.

South Yorkshire Police Federation says officers used to have more time to proactively go out and stop crime from happening. But that tactic has been eroded thanks to decimating cuts in officer numbers.

It means the force is now having to do more with less and cope with more and more demands on its time and resources.

Federation Chairman Steve Kent says his members would relish the chance to be able to tackle crime more proactively.

He said: “Stop and search, when used appropriately, is an excellent tool in identifying criminals and criminal behaviour.

“The issue, in terms of stop and search, is that proactive policing is completely hampered by overwhelming demand.

“Back when we had decent resources, officers would use downtime – that’s a strange term these days – to go out and actually look for people and criminal behaviour. Now they are chasing their tails and chasing incidents.

“Officers would love an element of returning to proactive work – that’s what officers partly join the job for, as well as to help people, they want to go out and find criminals.”

However, setting targets for stop and search numbers is dangerous and could lead to the measure being used inappropriately by officers who are told they must hit a monthly quota, Steve warned.

He said: “My only caveat to stop and search is that, while I welcome its increased use and support from the Government, it should never be used as a performance indicator, and we don’t ever want to return to those days, because if it does, stop and search will be used incorrectly.

“It’s officers under pressure and if they’ve been told they’ve got a hypothetical number of stop and searches every month then there is a risk of those officers doing it inappropriately, without justification, just to hit a target.”