Black church leaders say police 'stop & search' not the answer to violent crime

Youth work, not stop and search, is the community's preferred way of preventing gun and knife crime, according to the leader of the African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance (ACEA).

Rev Katei Kirby, CEO of ACEA - one of the UK's leading black Christian umbrella organisations - works closely with Hope4London, which launched a report into church perceptions of crime on Monday.

The Church Consultation on Violent Crime, compiled by Premier Christian Radio in association with the Metropolitan Black Police Association and based on responses from nearly 3,400 people, showed that the top initiative Christians would like to take to make their community a safer place is youth work.

Rev Kirby was one of a group of black church leaders who met Gordon Brown this week to discuss crime and other issues affecting local communities.

She said the report reflects a better way of dealing with gun crime than that controversially proposed this week by Keith Jarrett, outgoing president of the National Black Police Association.

Mr Jarrett said he would be pressing police to stop and search more young people to help tackle gun and knife crime, and that the black community feels this is an effective way of reducing violence.

But Rev Kirby pointed to the report's findings that 26 per cent of responses to the question "if there was one thing you could do to make your community a safer place, what would it be?" were linked to youth work.

While police influence was seen as the next most important factor (suggested by 14 per cent of respondents), this related mainly to more visible policing - there was no demand for new laws.

Rev Kirby said: "The message from the community is clear: youth work is the best way forward.

"It has not been proven that increased stop and search powers will reduce crime. In fact, research indicates the opposite - that there's more likely to be a rise in community tension, particularly if the focus is disproportionately and inappropriately placed on stopping and searching young black or Asian males."

She said ACEA therefore supports the development and direction of Hope4London, which is championing the Christian response to crime in the capital in practical and effective ways, such as working alongside police in community events and carrying out youth and community work such as the Street Pastors initiative.

Bishop Wayne Malcolm, founder of Christian Life City church, a large black-majority church in Hackney, said he does not discount the need for stop and search, but thinks the same rules should apply to everyone, regardless of race.

"A lot of young people that I speak to still complain of being harassed, bullied and verbally abused by the police on account of their colour and clothes," he said.

"As one young person put it to me, 'when the police arrive on the scene, their usual routine is to find a white person in the crowd so they can ask them what happened'."

He added that this suggests many young blacks still see the police as thugs and bullies, with this stereotype partly fuelled by their experiences with the police.

"We must find a way to change the image that many young blacks have of the police and that many police officers have of young blacks by replacing the old image with new experiences," he concluded.