The Prime Minister’s belief in stop and search has been challenged by academic research.

The Prime Minister has defended the use of stop and search and has relaxed the rules on its use.

As part of his crime plan, Section 60 powers will be permanently relaxed in a bid to reduce violent street crime.

Boris Johnson said the tactic is a “kind and loving” way of removing dangerous weapons from would-be offenders.

“I disagree with the opponents of stop and search ... They are not the only tool that we have got to use. They are part of a range of things we have got to do to fight street crime,” he said.

Opponents say it disproportionately impacts BAME people and erodes community trust in policing.

HM Inspectorate has warned forces they must come up with a better way of explaining why Section 60 is needed or stop using it.

Frontline officers say they just want answers from either HMI or the College of Policing on the right way ahead.

One officer shared on social media that Section 60 “isn’t a perfect tool, but it is a valuable one”.

“I’d rather use it to take someone’s knife off them, than listen to a mum screaming as I’m trying to stop her son from dying in the street,” they said.

While the PM was drafting his plan, academics published research that challenge his blanket approach.

So what are the alternatives and what works?

More investment and life chances in the communities blighted by knife crime is the real fix, according to two research projects. And targeting offenders operating in deprived areas for stop and search, works better.

Tackling inequality – including inequality of public resources – is the critical to improving outcomes.

A report for the United Nations by the Runnymead Trust highlighted how Black people are around 18 times more likely to be searched under Section 60.

There was also concern that the new powers to target known knife carriers would add to the number of BAME people in the criminal justice system.

The report said: “In its own consultation document, the government acknowledged that Black people are more likely to be sentenced for knife or weapon offences, and the racial disparities under existing stop and search powers. Not surprisingly, we expect that these measures will create new, even wider racial disparities and further undermine BME communities’ trust in the police.”

The report called for better data recording and for the UK government to repeal Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

“Until Section 60 is repealed, the UK government should ensure that use of Section 60 powers should be subject to consistent enforcement of legal standards and regular inspection,” it said.

But the trust said policing would not solve street violence.

It said: “Legislation, institutional practices and society’s customs continue to combine to harm BME groups. As a result, in England, BME groups are consistently more likely to live in poverty, to be in low-paid precarious work and to die of COVID-19. Disparities facing BME groups in England are sustained across the areas of health, housing, the criminal justice system, education, employment, immigration and political participation.”

And research published in the Cambridge Journal of Evidence-based Policing said the only way to improve outcomes would a huge and disproportionate investment in poor communities most likely to be impacted by crime.

The report was based on Office of National Statistics (ONS) reports on crime and policing in England and Wales, and Dorset Police data on violent crime victimisation and stop-search by race of suspect across the 452 Lower-Layer Super-Output Levels in Dorset.

The research tried to see how far policing across racial categories is ‘balanced’ in its ratios of preventive police actions per 100 serious crimes committed against members of each racial category.

Professor Alex Stevens of University of Kent explained why its findings were useful to the UK.

“This is important because, as this paper from Larry Sherman shows, much of the disparity of stop and search may be explained by disparities in victimisation across ethnic groups,” he shared.

The report concluded: “Policing must prioritise crime prevention resources where risks are highest—especially for any racial or ethnic disparities in the probability of individuals in different groups suffering death or harm from crime.

“In pursuit of equal protection against unequal risk of harm, it is logically necessary that police adopt unequal allocation of police resources to compensate for historical disadvantages. Such historically compensatory inequality is a widely used, if hotly debated, strategy for equalising contemporary life chances.”

Evidence from New York shows that targeted work focused on known offenders based on excellent intelligence is also effective.

Research led by Aaron Chalfin reviewed NYPD’s shift to a more surgical form of “precision policing”. The force focused resources on a small number of individuals who are thought to be the primary drivers of violence.

“Violence in and around public housing communities fell by approximately one third in the first year,” it said.

The Met has begun a pilot to target known knife carriers – and this could prove the US results.

A crux issue for forces, researchers and campaigners is that the Home Office’s own assessment of Section 60 remains unpublished.

Home Office said an assessment had been completed, but no decision had been reached on publication, adding: “An assessment of the pilot relaxing conditions on the use of section 60 stop and search showed it gave police officers greater confidence to make use of the power, better reflected the realities and uncertainties officers face on the ground around predicting serious violence, and acted as a deterrent.”

A crux issue for forces, researchers and campaigners is that the Home Office’s own assessment of the new Section 60 powers remains unpublished.

The Home Office said: “An assessment of the pilot relaxing conditions on the use of section 60 stop and search showed it gave police officers greater confidence to make use of the power, better reflected the realities and uncertainties officers face on the ground around predicting serious violence, and acted as a deterrent.”