Proactive turn: stop and search in Scotland (a study in elite power)
View/ Open
Date
02/07/2015Author
Murray, Katherine Helen
Metadata
Abstract
This study examines the development of police stop and search in Scotland from the
post-war period onwards. The aim is to explain the remarkable scale of stop and
search, the attendant lack of political or academic engagement prior to the formation
of the single service in in April 2013, and to draw out the implications, both for
policing and the public.
The thesis takes a top-down perspective which seeks to explain the policing
direction in terms of elite outlooks and decision-making over time. It is argued that
search rates in contemporary Scotland can be explained in terms of an incremental
shift in the way that the tactic has been conceptualized by political and policing
elites. Specifically, it is argued that the post-war construct of stop and search as a
reactive mechanism premised on investigation, detection and the disruption of crime,
has been displaced by a proactive model, premised on intensive, risk-based stop and
search activity. It is argued that this shift has partly attenuated the link between stop
searches and suspicious behaviour by introducing non-detection as a measure of
successful deterrence, alongside the traditional aim of detection. In short, it is argued
that stop and search has been remodelled as a tactic that can be legitimated
irrespective of the outcome. The thesis will show how this shift has progressively
weighted the balance between crime control and individual freedom in favour of the
state, and weakened the rights of the individual, with minimal regard for procedural
protection and human rights.
The thesis employs a wide range of data sources and methodologies to
investigate the core argument, which is developed from three interrelated positions.
First, taking a historical perspective, the thesis examines elite sensibilities and
decision-making in relation to stop and search from the early 1950s, through to the
early 2000s. Next, the thesis adopts an empirical position to investigate the use of
stop and search between 2005 and 2010, and shows how search activity on the street
reflected dominant outlooks higher up the ranks. Finally, the thesis adopts a
normative perspective in order to assess the ethical implications of stop and search
practice in Scotland, and to develop a series of informed recommendations for policy
and practice.