THE sheer weight of demand on South Yorkshire\u2019s Police Officers is hampering their ability to engage stop and search to keep the public safe.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It means the force is now having to do more with less and cope with more and more demands on its time and resources.<\/p>\n
Federation Chairman Steve Kent says his members would relish the chance to be able to tackle crime more proactively.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cStop and search, when used appropriately, is an excellent tool in identifying criminals and criminal behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue, in terms of stop and search, is that proactive policing is completely hampered by overwhelming demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack when we had decent resources, officers would use downtime \u2013 that\u2019s a strange term these days \u2013 to go out and actually look for people and criminal behaviour. Now they are chasing their tails and chasing incidents.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers would love an element of returning to proactive work \u2013 that\u2019s what officers partly join the job for, as well as to help people, they want to go out and find criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cMy 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\u2019t ever want to return to those days, because if it does, stop and search will be used incorrectly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s officers under pressure and if they\u2019ve been told they\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n