The force have assured the public that they will continue to work closely with communities after being selected for a Home Office pilot which makes it easier to authorise stop and search powers to assist in tackling knife crime.

Section 60 powers - named after the section of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 which grants them - allow a police officer to stop and search a person without the need to show reasonable grounds.

However, despite the pilot, the force has said it doesn't anticipate any change to the way it currently implements these powers without liaising with communities first. Chief Superintendent Danny Long said:

“West Midlands Police is one of seven forces included in the Home Office pilot for changes to current section 60 search deployment. The new Home Office guidance has proposed to reduce the level of authorisation required for a Section 60 search from senior officer to inspector.

"It also lowers the degree of certainty required by an authorising officer to carry out a section 60 search so they must reasonably believe an incident involving serious violence ‘may’, rather than ‘will’, occur.
 
“While we welcome and note the proposed changes suggested by the Home Office, we want to reassure the public and our partners that we will not be changing our position on section 60 searches without first consulting with our communities and scrutiny groups who we have worked closely with over the last few years.  
 
“We will continue to work with the public to understand the impact of the tactic and ensure appropriate management and scrutiny of the WMP use of s60 is in place.”