Humiliation, trauma and mistrust: why we must scrap Section 60
credit: Sam Knock
Me and the police, we’ve never got on. In my youth, I was stopped and searched nearly every day by Hampshire Police and found myself pushed into the criminal justice system. During the cycle of relentless stop-and-search, things rapidly headed towards cautions for drug possession, then fines, community orders and finally prison.
The process began at the age of 16 in the small town of Gosport just outside of Portsmouth, way before I broke any law.
Police used to stop and search me for riding my mountain bike on the pavement, for fitting a description, for being ‘known’ to them.
Maybe they stop and search you for the same reasons too.
Over the past four years or so as a community activist and case worker for local police accountability group Bristol Copwatch, I have come to truly understand the harm that police can cause in people’s lives – particularly when it comes to stop-and-search powers.
Harmful, ineffective and unnecessary
All stop-and-search powers are controversial. But suspicionless search carried out under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, which Bristol has seen a reintroduction of over the past year, is especially so.
It’s seen young people disproportionately targeted. The power is harmful, ineffective and unnecessary.
The police seem intent on rebranding themselves as a holistic anti-racist organisation – but for them to do this, while at the same time using racist powers, makes no sense
Within the last 12 months, Bristol has seen an escalation of serious violence, sparking the Together for Change campaign of which the Bristol Cable is a member. Looking back a year, in the first two months of 2024, three teenagers were fatally stabbed.
These tragedies, and others that followed, rightly sparked calls for more to be done to end the bloodshed on our city’s streets. But what’s important is that the tools the police use are effective, and used fairly.
The police would have you believe that Section 60, which the Cable has also been campaigning against since summer 2024, is not only a stop-and-search power that reduces violent crime and takes weapons off the streets, but acts as a deterrent and further violence.
The reality of the situation, though, is much more bleak.
If the failure rate of suspicionless stop-and-search powers – the find rate of weapons less than 1% – outweighs the benefits of using them, then most importantly so do the traumatic effects of criminalisation of youth and communities.
Darrian Williams, 16, was stabbed to death last February in Easton. In December, two 16 year olds were sentenced to 15 years in prison for murdering him.
Following Darrian’s death, Avon and Somerset Police ran a Section 60 operation for 48 hours. In that time they found no weapons, and disproportionately targeted people of colour. A boy who had been a victim of knife crime was stopped on his way home from school.
Not addressing the problem
The reintroduction of Section 60 in Avon and Somerset has come at a time when the police seem intent on rebranding themselves as a holistic anti-racist organisation. But for them to do this, while at the same time using such a racist power, just doesn’t make any sense.
The police have previously engaged with community leaders on the use of the power – holding public events in the community in the aftermath of serious violence. Yet I can’t help but feel like officers did not properly explain the likely consequences of the enforcement: racist overpolicing and no knives being found. It’s gaslighting.
Stop-and-search can create feelings of humiliation, trauma and distrust of the police. Section 60 only serves to amplify these issues.
It allows for a disproportionate and racist policing strategy, resulting in containment operations that fail to address the problem of serious violence that we must take ownership of. Section 60 does not work, and it should be scrapped.
John Pegram is the founder member of Bristol Copwatch.
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