Image: London Mayor Sadiq Khan with police officers in Southwark. Stefan Rousseau/PA Images. All rights reserved.
Sadiq Khan’s pledge last week to combat knife crime in the capital by increasing stop and search won’t work. It will only leave Londoners over-policed and under-protected. The tactic typically targets black and minority communities, damaging relations that are vital to intelligence gathering and fuelling the kind of frustration that leads to unrest.
By promising more “intelligence-led” searches, Khan has reversed his pre-election commitment to decrease the practice. This is a knee-jerk reaction to a week of political criticism following a spike in stabbings and four New Year’s Eve deaths in the capital.
