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The Rise and Fall of Suspicionless Searches

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Location: Warwick Law School, S2.12

Prof Benjamin Bowling (King's College London) and Estelle Marks (Oxford University)

ABSTRACT

Prof Bowling and Estelle Marks will discuss a working paper which examines the extraordinary rise and fall of the police power to stop and search people in public places without suspicion. ‘Suspicionless searches’ rose twentyfold in England and Wales in the first decade of the twentieth century and then fell almost as dramatically. In the year 2000 the police conducted 7,000 searches under s.60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 a number which then rose to a peak of 150,000 in 2009. Suspicionless searches conducted under s.44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 rose by the same degree from 10,200 in 2001/2 to 210,00 in 2009. Searches under both powers then declined radically in subsequent years – to 46,000 in the case of s.60 and to zero in the case of s.44. This latter power was repealed in 2010 following the ECtHR decision in Quinton and Gillan and replaced with s.47A which has not yet been used. Drawing on contemporary police research and theoretical concerns about the legitimacy of widely-drawn state powers, this paper seeks to understand the relationship between law-in-the-books and police stop and search powers in practice. It considers changes in the social and political context within which police powers are exercised and the role of the legislature, judiciary and civil society organisations in holding the police to account for the use of coercive and intrusive powers. The paper concludes with a consideration of the recent Home Office reform proposals and the implications for the future of police powers to stop and search without reasonable suspicion.

SPEAKERS

Ben Bowling is Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice and Associate Dean of the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. His work exploring themes of fairness, effectiveness and accountability in policing has been published in three recent books – Policing the Caribbean (Oxford University Press 2010), Global Policing (with James Sheptycki, Sage 2012) and Stop & Search: Police Power in Global Context (edited with Leanne Weber, Routledge 2012) – and in articles in the Modern Law Review, Criminal Law Review, Policing and Society and Theoretical Criminology.

Estelle Marks graduated with a first class law degree from King’s College London School of Law in 2014 before taking up a scholarship to study for the MSc in Criminology at Oxford University. Her research interests are largely focused on civil liberties and the accountability of government. With a keen interest in the relationship between power and the citizen, Estelle is aiming for a career as a lawyer, advising clients on civil actions involving public bodies.

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