It ought not to be controversial ...it's just called police work

CHIEF CONSTABLE DEFENDS HUGE RISE IN STOP AND SEARCHES

- JOHN SCHEERHOUT

CHIEF Constable Stephen Watson has mounted a robust defence of a huge rise in the use of stop and search in Greater Manchester.

The latest figures reveal 46,029 stop and search encounters in the year to April, a fourfold increase compared to three years ago when he was installed.

The top cop concedes it is considered a controversial tactic 'in certain quarters' because of the disproportionate number of people from ethnic minorities who are stopped.

GMP figures from last year suggested black people were 2.1 times more likely to be stop searched, down from 3.7 the year before. Nationally, black people were 4.8 times more likely to be stop searched.

But Chief Watson said the huge rise in stop and search and the increase in other forms of pro-active policing such as arrests, which doubled to 64,729 last year, lay behind a seven per cent fall in recorded crime in Greater Manchester.