POLICE in Barnsley are revising their implementation of stop and search powers in an effort to tackle rising concerns with drugs and burglaries in the town.
A new panel has been set up by Chief Inspector Chris Foster, force lead for stop and search, in order to gauge the public’s opinions on the tool which has been decreasing during recent years due to government-led legislation.
However, officers patrolling the town centre there has been a higher-than-average rate of burglaries this year and ongoing problems with ‘spice’ abuse are set to be more proactive with apprehending suspicious people.
Spice a synthetic cannabinoid substance formerly known as a legal high takes effect within five to ten minutes and lasts for three to five hours, leading police resources to be stretched due to the time-consuming nature of dealing with users.
“During the last few years the direction from government has been that we need to be more careful in using our stop and search powers as a police service,” Chf Insp Foster said. “Stop and search can have a massively detrimental effect upon communities and individuals if it’s used inappropriately.
“It can also have a massively beneficial effect upon our communities in preventing crime, preventing people’s houses being burgled, removing drugs from our streets and saving lives, by ensuring that people who carry knives are searched and ultimately arrested.
“It is a vital tool in our armoury and one which needs careful scrutiny and consideration by my officers.
“We have set up an improvement panel in Barnsley, where members of the public can assess and feed back their thoughts about the stop searches we undertake in our community.”
Calls for more stop and searches came about due to a spike in knife crime in Sheffield, but Barnsley-based officers believe they can replicate that to combat suspected drug-taking, dealing and burglary.
“We’re lucky that Barnsley doesn’t have a big issue with knife crime,” Chf Insp Foster added.
“However, people often say they want drugs and drug dealers removing from the streets.
“It is by the use of stop and search that we can do this. Healthy discussion around whether someone should or shouldn’t have been searched took place at our most recent meeting.
“It’s a difficult one to balance for my officers and a responsibility which weighs heavily on us. We do not search anyone and everyone randomly `" there has to be a strong suspicion before the decision is taken.
“We do not search people simply because you are walking down the street at a certain time of the day, nor because of the colour of your skin or your appearance.
“It is crucial that we use stop and search as an effective tool to combat crime but that we better explain its use to ensure the people we serve understand and support us in ensuring people remain safe within our town.
“If a person is rummaging in their pockets, has white powder around their nose or someone in one of our town’s burglary hotspots is there at 3am, there’s a good reason to stop and search.”
