Ben Bradford - Stop and Search and Police Legitimacy

Ben Bradfords book expands our understanding of the role of the police and adds significantly to the police powers debate in the UK. As one would expect, the empirical research is comprehensive, stimulating, accessible and makes an original contribution to the stop and search literature.

Jenny Fleming, Professor of Criminology, University of Southampton, and Editor-in-Chief of Policing & Society, an international journal of research and policy

The use of stop and search is one of the most contentious issues in policing and Bradford provides invaluable analysis in an area where debates are often shallow and simplistic. The rich and detailed evidence is combined with fascinating discussion of the wider role and status of police in contemporary society. This book makes an important contribution to vital debates in criminology and police studies.

Michael Rowe, Professor of Criminology, Northumbria University

Stop and search is amongst the most controversial of policing issues, above all because of the huge disparity in its use against different groups. Ben Bradford has produced a penetrating, provocative state-of-the-art review of the history, use, and potential of the stop and search power. It is a rare combination of sophisticated theoretical and empirical analysis, combining a wealth of detailed data with a comprehensive critique of the fundamental interdependence of stop and search and indeed policing more generally with both security and inequality. It is a must-read for anyone with a concern about policing and social justice.

Robert Reiner, Emeritus Professor of Criminology, London School of Economics

Stop and search is a form of policecitizen interaction that is confrontational, often stressful for those involved, and potentially damaging to the relationship between police and public. The extent to which police officers use their power to stop and perhaps search members of the public is intimately linked not only to the present-day context of policing but also to longer-term patterns in the aims of policing, the methods used to achieve them, and ultimately to the ideology of policing in England and Wales.

Stop and Search and Police Legitimacy draws upon both police-administrative and survey- based data to examine what has for many years been one of the most highly charged and contested aspects of police practice. Taking a decidedly quantitative, empirical approach, this book examines the patterning of police stops over social and geographic space, the problem of ethnic disproportionality, and the evidence concerning how people experience and react to being stopped by police particularly in relation to issues of fairness, legitimacy, cooperation and compliance. A further important concern is the extent to which this form of police practice shapes and re-shapes the identities of those affected by it.

This ground- breaking study is a comprehensive resource for students and scholars in the fields of criminology, sociology, social policy, ethnic and racial studies and human rights. It will also be of special interest to police leaders and policy- makers.

Ben Bradford is Departmental Lecturer in Criminology in the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, UK. He has collaborated with the London Metropolitan Police, the College of Policing, Police Scotland and other agencies on research projects concerned with improving police understanding of public opinions and priorities.

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40 The Penal Voluntary Sector
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41 Transforming Summary Justice
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42 Stop and Search and Police Legitimacy
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43 Young Offenders and Open Custody
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Ben Bradford

First published 2017
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2017 Ben Bradford

The right of Ben Bradford to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Bradford, Ben, author.
Title: Stop and search and police legitimacy / Ben Bradford.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | Series: Routledge frontiers of criminal justice ; 42 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016028735 | ISBN 9780415708647 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315885940 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: PoliceGreat Britain. | Searches and seizuresGreat Britain. | Police-community relationsGreat Britain. | Crime prevention Great Britain.
Classification: LCC HV8195.A3 B73 2017 | DDC 363.25/2dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028735

ISBN: 978-0-415-70864-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-88594-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

This book brings together a number of things I have been working on for some time. In 2009, I started to look at issues around ethnic profiling with Rebekah Delsol and Mike Shiner and their colleagues at the Open Society Foundation (OSF) and Stopwatch. Since then I have collaborated with several others, too, on reports, book chapters and journal articles directly relevant to the material covered here and upon which the discussion frequently draws. In addition to Rebekah and Mike, I am grateful in particular to Mike Hough, Ian Loader and Jon Jackson. Without this group of people many of the ideas sketched herein would never have come to fruition, and I am hugely in their debt. It goes without saying that all the mistakes, errors and omissions are entirely my own. I should also note that I first produced some of the datasets and analysis used in this book while working as a consultant for OSF. I was given complete academic freedom at the time, and the views laid out below are not endorsed or influenced by the OSF in any way (although I hope the people there will find them interesting and useful).