Stop and Search

The force has a commitment to becoming more open and transparent. Part of this is being better at sharing and engaging on some of the powers that our police officers use to keep people safe, and that includes Stop and Search.

We believe that greater scrutiny will further ensure that our use of these is right and proper.

What are we searching for?

Stop and Search is a powerful tool, which officers have used during this quarter to address some of the long standing issues related to drugs lines operating in Andover and the associated violence it often accompanies.

Test Valley was not immune to the harmful impact of county lines and despite a very minimal reduction in the number of searches, we were certainly more effective than the previous quarter in the number of times we located drugs or weapons.

This has made a positive difference to the reduction of drug related harm as we saw a 45% reduction in the number of drug lines operating in our district.

Is our use of Stop and Search in Test Valley proportionate?

The latest data shows a black person is 9.1 times more likely to be stopped in Test Valley, while a mixed race person is 2.6 times more likely to be stopped.

This is based on Census data and to provide you with some further context, for the data to show proportionality, more than 75 white people would need to be stopped for every one black person stopped.

We know that some families who have lost loved ones to violence and drug related harm advocate police searches but we also know many people have concerns about whether policing powers are used fairly. As a force we know that it helps us to keep people safe and spend considerable time scrutinising how it is used. But, we also recognise that our view alone is not enough.

We need views from others so we are doing far more engagement than we did previously. Scrutiny involving our Independent Advisory Groups (made up of members of the public) is therefore part of our approach, and we would encourage people all of our communities to get involved in these groups or engage via our force Facebook pages if that is not something you’d like to do.

Where can I find more information about stop and search in Test Valley?

You can see more about the numbers by looking at the infographic, below. We have also provided the same data in a different format if that is easier for you.

Where can I find previous data?

If you wish to take a look at data from Test Valley for previous quarters, then you will find these documents here.

What is the Test Valley Independent Advisory Group (IAG) and what do they do?

Each quarter, members of our community meet as part of our IAG to discuss stop and search within the district and conduct a dip sample of searches to ensure they are lawful and proportionate.

Along with this, they will also take a look at locations where there have been a number of stops and individuals who have been stopped multiple times.

As part of our continued commitment to ensuring our use of the Stop and Search powers available to us and the scrutiny of this are transparent, we are now publishing notes from our IAG meetings.

These notes are anonymised, but we hope will help show what our group does. We are keen to broaden this group further and get the views of our community, in particular those with direct experience of stop and search.

If you wish to find out more or join our IAG, you can email [email protected]