'UK-style' police searches proposed

BRITISH-STYLE stop-and-search procedures may be introduced in a bid to improve relations between the police and public, says Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

This would, notably, include police handing out receipts including their identity numbers to anyone they stop.

In Britain people stopped are also asked to give their ethnic origin so this can be noted as part of a report on the stop (Mr Valls did not say if this would be done, however France has rules against keeping files on ethnic origins, so it less likely).

The aim is to give the public more confidence in the police, and to avoid so-called délit de faciès, which refers to people being stopped and questioned – allegedly sometimes several times the same day – because of their race, colour or appearance.

It would make it easier for people who think they have been targeted unfairly to complain, especially since modern police uniforms do not display an officer’s number.

Mr Valls said on BFM TV: “I think it will be useful to everyone – both to people who are stopped, who should be stopped but not three or four times, and to the police officers, who need to regain respect.”

However he said this was at a stage of “reflection” and nothing definite had been decided.

A crackdown on abuse of stop-and-search powers was one of President Hollande’s campaign promises. Mr Valls has asked a contact in London to provide briefing on how the British system works.

Police unions have however criticised the idea. It would give too much power to “hooligans” to “make everyone’s lives a misery in their district”, according to Synergie-officiers head Patrice Ribeiro.

A regional councillor for Seine-Saint-Denis (which has a history of problems between police and residents of estates), Bruno Beschizza, said: “This idea of a receipt seems a good idea of the face of it, but it’s a mistake. With all good intentions, we risk paralysing the police.”

Photo: Phovoir