Almost like there's no evidence stop and search reduces knife crime.
The Liberal Democrats have claimed that new statistics showing a rise in knife crime shows the Tories’ encouragement of stop and search is not working.
New figures show that knife crime was at a record high in the year ending September 2019, 7% higher than it was in the year ending September 2018 and 43% higher than when records began in 2011.
At the same time as knife crime has been rising, the number of stop and searches has been increasing rapidly too.
The number of suspicion-less Stop and Searches under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act have increased twentyfold in the last two years, from 631 in 2016-17 to 13,175 in 2018-19. In only 1% of these searches was an offensive weapon found.
Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Christine Jardine said: “The Conservatives’ approach has clearly failed. Their huge surge in suspicion-less Stop and Search is wasting police time and undermining crucial trust in communities, while knife crime continues to rise.
“Instead of the Tories’ pointless headline-grabbing gestures, Liberal Democrats are arguing for an evidence-based approach that will actually make our communities safer. That means more police, more youth services and a proper public health approach to serious violence.”
Youth services have suffered a 70% funding cut since 2010-2011.
A return to the bad old days of stop and search targets will not be tolerated – Jennette Arnold
Why Boris Johnson’s knife crime plans will do more harm than good – Luna Williams
What the government must really do to tackle knife crime – Unmesh Desai
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Knife crime reaches record high despite surge in stop and searches - Politics Highlight - News from the Left and Right
[…] 23 January 2020Politics Highlight Almost like there’s no evidence stop and search reduces knife crime. Author: Joe Lo | Source […]