Bedfordshire Police stop and search record best in the country

Supt Ian Taylor said Bedfordshire Police had made "enormous progress" in stop and search over the past 18 months

Bedfordshire Police has been ranked as the best force in the country for a key aspect of stop and search.

Inspectors found the force carried out stop and searches with reasonable grounds 95.8% of the time, up from 81% in 2018.

The force said its officers had undergone specialist training and these results should reassure communities.

Supt Ian Taylor said it had made "enormous progress" over the past 18 months.

The force said a recent inspection by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) put it at the top of all 43 police forces in England and Wales, in terms of "recording and utilising reasonable grounds to suspect" as the objective test to use when instigating a power to search.

The average across the country was 81.7%.

Bedfordshire Police said its independent stop and search scrutiny panel had been highlighted by the Criminal Justice Alliance as an example of best practice for other areas to follow

Supt Taylor said: "We have made enormous progress in how we train, deliver and scrutinise stop and search over the past 18 months.

"Every police officer who puts on the uniform in Bedfordshire knows how important it is that we use stop and search in a fair, legitimate and professional way.

"I hope these results go some way to reassuring our communities about how seriously we take our responsibilities around stop and search.

"However, we also acknowledge that we still have so much progress to make around stop and search, including continuing to build trust and confidence in our communities about how it is used."

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