Blears defends “stop and search” policy
A government minister has defended a move to stop and search people from specific ethnic groups as part of the security response to London’s recent bombings.
British Transport Police chief constable Ian Johnston confirmed that those from certain ethnic groups are more likely to be challenged on public transport in an interview with the Mail on Sunday.
Supporting the approach, Home Office minister Hazel Blears said police would be acting on information from intelligence sources and that stopping those of a particular description was “absolutely the right thing” for officers to do.
“What it means is if your intelligence in a particular area tells you that you’re looking for somebody of a particular description, perhaps with particular clothing on, then clearly you’re going to exercise that power in that way,” she told BBC News.
“That’s absolutely the right thing for the police to do.”
Ms Blears stressed that it was important people were kept informed about the policy and that those stopped were given an explanation for being challenged.
But civil liberties group Liberty said the move would play into the hands of terrorists.
“If you search people of a particular race or description while letting others through, it doesn’t take long for a terrorist group to learn ways of placing their lethal cargo with those who don’t meet the profile,” said Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, transport police chief Mr Johnston said intelligence-led stop and searches had “got to be the way”.
Acknowledging that there were “challenges” for police over the issue of “managing diversity”, he added: “We should not bottle out over this. We should not waste time searching old white ladies.”
