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Over 100,000 police searches in UK lead to zero terror arrests

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Oct 28, IRNA -- More than 100,000 people were stopped and searched by British police under counter-terrorism powers last year but none were arrested for terrorism-related offences, according to new Home Office figures published Thursday.

The statistics show that only 504 people out of the 101,248 searches were arrested for any offence – an arrest rate of 0.005%, compared with an average 10% arrest rate for street searches under normal police powers.

The figures prompted calls, including from the former Conservative shadow home secretary David Davis and the Islamic Human Rights Commission, for the controversial policy to be scrapped.

'This astonishing fact of no terrorism-related arrests, let alone prosecutions or convictions, in over 100,000 stop and searches, demonstrates what a massively counter-productive policy this is,' said Davis.

'A policy which fuels resentment and antagonism amongst minority communities without achieving a single terrorist conviction serves only to help our enemies and increase the terrorism threat,' he warned.

The annual Home Office bulletin on the use of terror powers also discloses for the first time that more than 85,000 people were questioned by police at airports and other border points in the last years under counter-terrorist legislation.

IHCR chair Massoud Shadjareh criticised the limited scope of the figures, hidden away in a minor addendum at the end of the 48-page bulletin, for failing to address suspicions of systematic Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discrimination in the searches.

“We call on the government to face up to the real concerns that the increasing disproportionality of stop-and-search is doing nothing to tackle real criminality, but is targeting and criminalising communities that is already suffering alienation and discrimination,” Shadjareh said.

“The treatment of nearly 200,000 people arrested under Stop-and Search provisions of different kinds need to be taken much more seriously,” he said in reference to accounts of Muslims sometimes being subjected to “quite appalling behaviour” by the police.

“Muslims are also concerned about the attitude of many police officers carrying out the stops, who seem to assume guilt rather than innocence.”

The annual bulletin also show that police have powers to hold terror suspects for up to 28-days without charge, no one has been detained longer than 14 days in the last two years before being charged or released.

Out of a total of 1,834 terror-related arrests in Britain since the 9/11 attacks in the US in 2001, a majority of 1,000 have been released without any charge.

Some 422 have been charged with terrorism-related offences, while 228 have been prosecuted for other crimes and most of the remaining 184 have transferred to have immigration authorities.

So far, 237 of those charged with terrorism-related offences have been convicted, while 14 cases remain outstanding. At the end of March this year, there were 102 prisoners classified as terrorists, including 73% who were UK nationals.