Stop and search in England and Wales
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The use of stops and searches has fallen both in London and across England and Wales, following policy changes a few years ago.
Stops and searches are more likely than ever to result in arrest.
Around 17% of searches resulted in arrests, with 13% resulting in another kind of action in England and Wales in 2017/18.
Black people remain much more likely to be stopped and searched than white people, and this gap has widened in the most recent year we have figures for.
The laws in Scotland and Northern Ireland are different, and they publish their own statistics.
The rules on stop and search have changed
Almost all stops and searches take place under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and laws associated with that. It’s used by police to search people for things like drugs, weapons and stolen property, provided the officer has a reasonable cause to suspect they will find something. The use of section 1 searches had been declining rapidly in the last few years, but fel...
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