Stop & search: the 2022/23 data

• Looks at recent Home Office figures on stop and search powers; discusses their use and abuse, and the impact of this on effective policing.

Regrettably, the police use of stop and search powers has once again been attracting adverse news headlines after it was reported that two Metropolitan Police officers had been dismissed from the force for gross misconduct relating to their encounter with a British Olympic sprinter, her partner and their son, who was three months’ old at the time. The officers were dismissed in October 2023 for their conduct during a stop and search of British world championships medallist Bianca Williams (pictured right) and Portugal Olympic sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos (pictured left) in July 2020. The disciplinary panel which imposed this sanction on the officers took place not long after the latest annual stop and search figures were published by the Home Office. As ever, they make for interesting reading, not least because in recent times they