Now you see it, now you don’t: On the (in)visibility of police stop and search in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Police stop and search practices have been subject to voluminous debate for over 40 years in the United Kingdom. Yet critical debate related to the use of ‘everyday’ stop and search powers by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has, despite the hyper-accountable policing system of Northern Ireland, been marked by its absence. This article presents the first ever analysis of PSNI’s use of PACE-type powers (Police and Criminal Evidence (NI) Order 1989) – currently used at a higher rate and with poorer outcomes compared to the rest of the UK. While it can only be considered as an elusive power, about which detailed research evidence is markedly lacking, stop and search in Northern Ireland seems to serve as a classificatory tool for PSNI to control mainly young, socio-economically marginal male populations. The article provides new theoretical insight into stop and search as a simultaneous overt and covert practice, and speaks to wider issues of mundane police power – and practice – within highly contested and politically fractured contexts.

Achieving cultural change through organizational justice: The case of stop and search in Scotland

“…The policing field includes organizationally just leadership and management practices, as well as issues of policing governance, media pressure, accountability bodies, political contexts, legislation, policy development, training and findings from research. As Topping and Bradford (2018: 21) argue in relation to the recorded rates of stop and search in Northern Ireland: ‘[b]reaking PSNI’s dependence on its stop and search “habit”, as partially – and contingently – achieved elsewhere in the U.K (Travis, 2014) will require not just additional technical scrutiny but also wider political and policy leverage’. If change is secured in the policing field, then there is scope for longer-term change in habitus and practice.…”

“…For policing jurisdictions that have not experienced external pressures (such as that seen in Scotland) it is even more crucial that police leaders and management practices adopt fair and organizationally just methods (that are cognizant of the relationship between field and habitus) to justify and support change. This argument is also underscored by the ‘invisibility’ of tactics such as stop and search, which as Topping and Bradford (2018: 21) note, despite regulatory frameworks ‘is an elusive power, hard to pin down within established regulatory and accountability structures’. Reform is still an active project in Scotland, as a power of search for alcohol remains under consideration, which arguably runs counter to the current emphasis on engagement.…”

Overcoming ‘Sheriff Syndrome’: Exploring Young Adults’ Experiences of Policing in Northern Ireland

“…The visible persistency of the structural conditions and transitional processes underpinning the lives and narratives of the young adult participants lends an analysis of their accounts significant contemporary currency (Walsh and Schubotz, 2020). The relevance of the findings is especially pronounced considering the historically persistent overrepresentation of 18-to 25-year-old males in available PSNI stop and search data 5 (see PSNI, 2023;Topping and Bradford, 2018), and the continued gap in young adult-specific justice policy and practice in NI. While the specific context, including the passage of time, inevitably shape the study's findings, this does not undermine their ongoing relevance as exploratory insights into the subjectivities that surround police encounters, nor the integrity of the underlying methodology.…”

“…In their examination of routine stop and search practices by the PSNI, Topping and Bradford (2018) highlight that the PSNI uses stop and search powers at the highest level across the United Kingdom. They conclude that the PSNI systematically and proactively targets stop and search against 'young, socio-economically marginal males', a practice that 'categorizes, distinguishes and excludes', to the detriment of a population that requires additional support, rather than increased control (Topping and Bradford, 2018: 105; see also Topping and Schubotz, 2018).…”

“…This is now becoming increasingly true of stop and search encounters between police officers and young adults Graham, 2013;Beck and Dowling, 2020;The Police Foundation, 2018). However, these issues have rarely attracted the same kind of attention in NI (Topping and Bradford, 2018).…”