In this chapter, there is a shift in focus to the statutory power of the police to stop and search, the controversial status of which is not new. Less well documented, however, is that stop and search is highly relevant to the study of respect, since the practice tends to undermine the value, if not render it conspicuously absent. The chapter is organised as follows. The opening section explores how we might sharpen our critique of stop and search by framing it in terms of respect. Stop and search—a common form of adversarial contact between the police and the public—taps into deep and ingrained tensions between preventive policing, the exercise of coercive state authority, due process, and crime control. Among the most incisive criticisms of the power are its disproportionate and discriminatory exercise in relation to minority ethnic groups, its role in eroding police legitimacy, and the invasion of privacy and violation of bodily integrity necessitated by the search itself. The next section assesses three prominent proposals for the reform of stop and search—procedural justice training for police officers, tighter legal regulation of the power, and abolition—in terms of respect.
Privatizing Crime Control