Former top Tottenham police officer: pushing someone up against a wall is not the way to do stop and search

Victor Olisa said stop and search powers were vital in preventing street violence
ITV/ Good Morning Britain
Alexandra Richards9 April 2018

A former senior police officer who worked in one of London's worst hit areas for gang crime has said stop and search is a vital tool in policing London, but it must be done in the correct way in order for it to be effective.

Former Met chief superintendent Victor Olisa, who worked in Tottenham, said a visible police presence was required on the streets of London to tackle the current surge in violence and tit-for-tat gang attacks.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Mr Olisa said: “Police officers on the street have to carry out some activity, talking to people, stop and account, stop and search if you’ve got enough evidence - leads to people actually finding weapons.

“Jumping out of a car and pushing someone up against the wall is not the way to do it,” he said.

"We can do something about negative interaction."

His appearance comes after Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to make a U-turn on stop and search rules after a recent wave in knife crime in the UK.

More than 50 people have been killed in London in the capital since the beginning of 2018. In once incident earlier this week six stabbings took place in the just 90 minutes.

Ministers are due to consult on whether to extend the stop and search powers to include acid attack suspects and those believed to be carrying so-called 'extreme' weapons.

Minister for crime Victoria Atkins said that stop and search is a vital tool for police.

She emphasised the need for intelligence-led stop and search.

“In the last year we had the lowest number of stop and search and the highest number of arrests arising out of stop and searches.

“So intelligence-led targeted stop and search can be a vital tool, but it’s not the only tool,”she said.

Part of the government’s crackdown on violence will include a new Serious Weapons Bill set to come to Parliament within weeks.

The bill will prevent young people from buying or possessing acid and ministers will make it illegal to have long serrated blades.

Ms Atkins said: “We’ve asked the police what further powers they need to tackle the rise in acid for example, and from that we have created a draft bill which we hope will come before the House of Commons within weeks.

“We very much hope that we will have cross party consensus because I think everybody wants this to stop.”

She continued: “We need to give the police the powers they need to tackle this type of crime.”

Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Ms Atkins went on to highlight the importance of working with schools and charities to tackle the rise in violence amongst young people.

She said she wanted to stop the idea among some young people that it was “normal to carry knives.”

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