PSNI searches thousands of under-18s, but few arrests made

Police in Northern Ireland have used stop-and-search powers on under-18s nearly 25,000 times in the last five years, the vast majority of which do not result in any further action.

New figures revealed that between April 1st 2011 and March 31st 2016 a total of 23,323 operations were conducted that did not result in arrest - including 59 incidents involving children aged 10 and under.

Although a small number of these incidents (2,070) led to some action - such as a caution, community resolution or report to the prosecution service - more than 91 per cent did not.

Stop-and-search powers allow police to detain members of the public using a range of legislation aimed at combating crime.

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The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the powers could prevent offending and said it "is not out to criminalise young people and are open to other forms of disposal."

It said: “In the vast majority of (security related) cases, stop and search is used as an effective deterrent. If terrorists know there is a chance they will be stopped by police they have less opportunity to move weapons and bombs and we know this has prevented terrorist attacks and saved lives.”

Key findings

- More than 160,000 people, of all ages, were stopped and searched in the last five years. This resulted in an arrest rate of less than 7 per cent.

- Of the nearly 150,000 incidents that did not result in arrest, more than 23,000 were conducted on under-18s. This included nearly 60 on children aged 10 and under.

- Drugs and related paraphernalia were recovered in more than 1,000 searches on under-18s. This included the discovery of cannabis on a child aged 1-5 in 2013.

- Of the total number of under-18s stopped, 780 were arrested in the last three years.

- The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has received 370 complaints relating to the overall use of stop-and-search across the community in this period. In just one case was an officer found to have behaved improperly.

- Commitments to record community background data have not been fulfilled, with a recent pilot scheme in Derry aiming to collect this information failing to receive a single response.

- Police statistics show that over 70 per cent of stop-and-searches relate to regular crime, as opposed to terrorism or security related matters.

The figures provided to Detail Data, a project of The Detail news and analysis website in Belfast, reveal that in the last five years there were 11 incidents of stop and search with children aged 1-5; 48 on children aged 6-10; 3,880 on children aged 11-14 and 19,384 on young people aged 15-17.

Although the PSNI did not provide arrest information, analysis of data published on its website, when viewed in conjunction with the information provided to Detail Data, reveals that in the last three years, 780 under-18s were arrested following stop and search. This represents an arrest rate of 5.3 per cent.

In a response, the PSNI said that it did not believe arrests always represent a positive outcome.

“PSNI operates to keep people safe,” a statement read. “We do that through detection (arrest, prosecution) but quite often we prefer prevention and deterrence to stop crimes or harm to people occurring in the first place.

“So the fact is that arrest is not necessarily a successful outcome for PSNI nor is it the only successful outcome. In many incidents we stop and search people, and in particular young people, to try and deal with the real issues of drug misuse and underage drinking.”

‘Substantial’

Paula Rogers, the policy co-ordinator for Include Youth, a youth advocacy organisation, said the figures raise important issues.

“I knew of a few instances of under-10s but I never expected it to be just as substantial as that,” she said.

“They don’t know why they have been singled out, they feel they have been victimised when it happens and they certainly feel they are being labelled as well.

“Very few would even attempt to put a complaint in, they don’t see the point. They would say ‘Who would believe me over a police officer?’”

This is something the Police Ombudsman’s Office, which has received 370 complaints relating to searches in all age groups over the past five years, said it is keen to address.

“The issue of stop-and-search is something which comes up time and time again in our regular visits to schools and youth clubs to explain how the police complaints system works,” a spokesperson said.

“We have been in discussions with the police about this problem and hope in the next few months to launch an initiative which might go some way to addressing the problem.”