Source: BBC
October 21, 2007 Author: Staff
More people from black communities should be stopped and searched to help tackle knife and gun crime, a leading black police representative says.
Keith Jarrett, the outgoing president of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), said he would be pressing police for such an approach.
His call goes against the NBPA's stance but he said: "The black community is telling me we have to... look at this."
Some senior black police officers have distanced themselves from his remarks.
'Limited tool'
The NBPA's legal adviser, Ch Supt Ali Dizaei, told the BBC the comments were Mr Jarrett's personal views.
He said stop and search was "a very, very small part" of the fight against knife and gun crime and increasing its use would be "wrong".
"I think that will increase tension in the black community," Mr Dizaei said.
"Simply saying, 'Lets go out there and stop more black people' is ill conceived."
Mr Jarrett will use a speech this week to ask Police Minister Tony McNulty and Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair to consider searching more black people.
The use of racial profiling in stop-and-search tactics has long been one of the most contentious issues in British policing.
Black people are six times more likely to be stopped than white people, according to Home Office figures.
This disparity has led to continued charges of police racism.
Mr Jarrett's stance, which is expected to be outlined in a speech at the NBPA's annual conference in Bristol on Wednesday, marks a sharp change of direction by the body, which represents thousands of officers from ethnic minorities.
The UK-wide body has previously questioned the high proportion of black people stopped and searched by police.
Race riots
The Macpherson Report, published in February 1999 into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in London, strongly criticised the use of stop and search by police officers.
Its use is considered to have been a major factor in precipitating the inner-city race riots of the 1980s.
However, Mr Jarrett hopes the escalation of such tactics by police would reduce the number of nationwide shootings.
A further two teenagers have been killed in the last week.
Mr Jarrett told the newspaper: "From the return that I am getting from a lot of black people, they want to stop these killings, these knife crimes, and if it means their sons and daughters are going to be inconvenienced by being stopped by the police, so be it."
He said he was "hoping we go down that road" and he would be "pressing" for such an approach.
"It's not going to go down very well with my audience, many of whom are going to be black," he admitted.
"We have talked about disproportionate use of stop-and-search in the past, but what I am proposing is quite the reverse.
"The black community is telling me that we have to have a look at this."
He said he would not oppose a random use of stop-and-search in situations where officers had "reasonable suspicion" that an offence had been committed.
