Shock call for stop and search

A leading black community figure has called for police to increase the use of their stop and search powers to combat the crimewave on London's streets.

In an extraordinary appeal Mike Best, editor of black newspaper The Voice, has called for the technique to be stepped up despite the level of resentment it has sparked in the past between officers and the black community.

Stop and search allows police to question suspects in the street if they believe they may have committed a crime, or be about to commit one. The powers were scaled back after the Macpherson Report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence when the Metropolitan Police was branded institutionally racist three years ago.

Black men are five times more likely to be stopped by officers than white males. However, senior figures in the black community now believe there must be tough action because minorities are increasingly the victims, as well as the perpetrators, of violent attacks.

Mr Best told the BBC today: "The majority of people who have nothing to hide would not mind very much. I think the increasing crime is warranting that."

Mr Best, who documented each London gun-related killing in his newspaper, went on: "If you speak to relatives of the victims who passed away they, too, are saying that if their son had been stopped then perhaps he may have been in prison, but he would still be alive."

He said the powers must be used fairly, and added: "This whole myth that black people are the ones that cause all the major crimes - that's not true. It has to be across the whole board whether they are Asian, white or whatever - it must not be seen as just black people."

Street robberies in London have soared by 39 per cent since April last year. Each day around 200 people are mugged on London's streets and 600 weapons were seized by the police last year.

However, Lee Jasper, adviser to Mayor Ken Livingstone on police issues, said: "I understand the frustration that some people have in tackling these crimes. But we need policing to be intelligenceled to be effective."

Peter Herbert, Metropolitan Police Authority vice chairman, agreed on the need for drastic action but added: "Police should not have the green light to stop every black person on the street."

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