Boris Johnson announced an expansion of controversial stop and search powers for the police as part of a multi-billion pound package to tackle violent crime.
They included an extra 10,000 prison places and a sentencing review which could see violent and sexual offenders serve more time behind bars.
The roll back of restrictions on police use of stop and search which will prove most controversial, with warnings from criminal experts and community groups that it risked provoking riots similar to those seen in 2011.
Dr Mariam Fitzgerald, Professor of Criminology at the University of Kent said the extensive rollout of the practice across London under Mr Johnson’s mayoralty was the “backdrop to the riots in Tottenham”.
“These searches had gone through the roof in each of the three months before those riots,” she told LBC Radio.
Boris Johnson met police recruits on one of his first days in office (Photo: Geoff Pugh/AFP/Getty Images)
Jonathan Hinds from the Haringey Independent Stop & Search Monitoring Group, a grassroots community group, echoed her concerns.
“The increase in stop and search is going to hit a particular demographic … what will happen is what happened in 2011,” he told the BBC.
“If they are not monitored and held to account on who they are using this power against you’re going to get a worse result.”
A report by the College of Policing into the powers in 2017 said the measures only “limited evidence” it reduced crime.
Why is the Government widening stop and search powers? Boris Johnson has made cracking down on crime one of his main policies since entering Downing Street and will continue to push it in the run up to a possible general election. The rise in violent crime, and particularly the spike in knife crime across the country, has prompted the Prime Minister to increase the powers for police officers. It was a policy he introduced during his time as London mayor.
Why was the use of it reduced? In 2014 Theresa May as home secretary reformed the use of stop and search powers amid fears it was being used illegally and was discriminatory. At the time black people were seven times more likely to be stopped by the police than white people, and only around one in 10 of those searches led to an arrest. Mrs May said she wanted a more “intelligence-led” approach by police.
Why does it not work? A Centre for Crime and Justice Studies report last year showed it can have “detrimental effects” on particular groups and hurt community relations. It can also have the “unintended consequence” of pushing people into gangs “as a form of reaction and defiance”. The research also found that reasonable grounds for a search were found to “not be apparent in around one in six stops, leading to further feelings of victimisation and unfairness”.
Why does the Prime Minister think it works? During his time as Mayor of London he increased the use of the powers in London to reduce crime, claiming it worked. But his claim that he halved the murder rate in the capital has been disputed. It began rising again towards the end of his tenure.
More police and prison spaces
Mr Johnson also announced a a £2.5bn plan to create 10,000 additional prison places and the extension of enhanced stop and search powers to police forces across England and Wales.
And violent and sexual offenders could serve more time behind bars after the Prime Minister ordered an urgent review into sentencing as part of a raft of law and order measures.
The move is part of a wider attempt to pitch the Conservatives as the party of law and order and is being widely viewed as an indication that he his preparing the ground for an autumn general election.
It comes as it emerged Mr Johnson’s right hand man Dominic Cummings has ordered every policy announcement due for later in the autumn and winter to be brought forward in order to launch a “September offensive” of ahead of a potential snap poll.
The sentencing review team has been instructed to start work immediately and to report back to No 10 in the autumn, just as the country may be going to the polls.
Mr Johnson said: “Dangerous criminals must be kept off our streets, serving the sentences they deserve–victims want to see it, the public want to see it and I want to see it. To ensure confidence in the system, the punishment must truly fit the crime.”