Sir Mark Rowley (PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Stop and search can cut the number of attempted murders by “50 per cent or more” in the worst crime hotspots, the Met Commissioner has declared in a new defence of the controversial tactic.
Sir Mark Rowley said the statistic came from new research for the Oxford Journal of Policing that showed the value of searching suspects for weapons as a life-saving tool.
He added that the Met also had “countless examples of offenders being discovered to have dangerous weapons” during stop and searches, as well as “tools for burglary and drugs”.
He emphasised, however, that the Met - which has faced persistent criticism over its use of stop and search and its impact on black Londoners in particular - remained determined to ensure that the measure was directed at the right people.
He said this would involve using “better data” to determine more precisely the boundaries of crime hotspots where the tactic would be most effective and that his force’s aim was to “minimise proactive stops where they are not needed.”
Sir Mark’s comments came during a wide-ranging speech in London on Tuesday evening on reforming the Met in which he also highlighted his force’s success in cutting teenage and other homicides last year and called for increased pay for officers hit by cost of living pressures, but unable to strike alongside other public sector workers.
He also praised successes including the actions of officers in south London who had stopped a paedophile freed from prison after spotting him trying to enter the home of a 13-year-old girl in a repeat of his “offending profile of breaking into houses to sexually assault children.”
Some of his most significant remarks were on stop and search, however, as he made clear that he continues to see it as a vital part of the police response to violent crime on the capital’s streets.
“The Met gets a lot of scrutiny over stop and search – our critics say that most of our searches intercept no drugs or weapons,” Sir Mark told his audience.
“We have countless examples of offenders being discovered to have dangerous weapons, tools for burglary or drugs on their person that have been uncovered by my officers being in the right place at the right time.
“As a forthcoming global review of evidence for the Oxford Journal of Policing will report, stop and search in weapons crime hot spots can cut attempted murders in those small areas by 50% or more.
“Our challenge is to create better data to know the precise boundaries of these areas, so we can minimise proactive stops where they are not needed.”
On murders in the capital, Sir Mark said that teenage homicides last year - which totalled 14 - had halved since the record tally of 30 in 2021 and that the overall number of homicides had dropped by 17 per cent.
He added: “When we compare these rates with New York’s - where the population is almost identical to London’s at 8.7 million - we see that they suffered 433 murders last year compared to our 109.
“This was a rate of 50 per million in 2022 compared to 12 per million in London. Put another way, New Yorkers were four times more likely per capita to be murdered last year than Londoners were.”Sir Mark said this and other progress had been achieved despite police in London receiving much less funding than their counterparts in the US and many European countries and that “it is clear we are a country that has chosen not to invest more in our policing as, for example, other G7 countries do.”
In previous remarks since taking over as Commissioner last year, Sir Mark has responded to complaints about the number of black Londoners stopped and searched by pointing out that black Londoners account for a disproportionate number of young homicide victims in particular.
He has also insisted that police try to target the tactic in areas where the risk of violence is greatest but made clear that he wants to try to improve trust among black Londoners through precise use of the tactic and better community policing.
