Stop and search aids burglary crackdown

Assistant Chief Constable Gareth Morgan said improvements in stop and search had allowed officers to target specific crimes in specific places.

Figures released yesterday showed that the number of incidents of stop and search in Shropshire more than doubled from 846 between January and June 2012 to 1,728 in the same period this year.

Police say that the sharp increase was partly due to changes in the way stop and search was recorded.

Incidents are now recorded electronically via a police officer's radio. Previously it was done through paperwork.

This has had the effect of cutting the average time of a stop and search from eight minutes to just one minute.

But Mr Morgan said: "It is not just a time issue. It is great that we are not taking as much time off the officers or the person we are searching.

"But because it is completely paperless, we can plot where we have been and what searches have been carried out.

"In Shropshire, we have had a big push on burglaries and we have been able to use the stop and search in known problem hotspots.

"It is now much easier to use and there is a better understanding from officers of how and when to use it."

Mr Morgan said because senior officers were able to plot information, stop and search could be used more effectively.

He said: "If we have a problem with burglary in a particular place in Telford or Shropshire we can look at that.

"If we know there is a problem in, say, Ellesmere and all the stop and searches are being carried out in Oswestry we can have a briefing that shows this and we can say that clearly we need the stop and search in Ellesmere, not Oswestry.

"This is the first time we have been able to properly overlay the information and look where we are asking officers to patrol."

Mr Morgan said the use of stop and search had always had the support of the public.

He said: "The public want us to use it, but in the right place and for the right reasons.

"We are increasingly using it, but in the right places and tackling the crime that people want us to tackle.

"Per head of population in Shropshire, you are very unlikely to be a victim of crime, and you are even less likely to be stop and searched."