Meeting of the Parliament 02 April 2014
I am sorry, but I do not have time.
If those kids in Glasgow had been down by the Clyde drinking alcohol until midnight or 1 o’clock at night, something could have happened to them. In that respect, stop and search is a positive thing. It protected those kids from harm, rather than anything else.
The Lib Dems ask for scrutiny and the Labour Party ask for Audit Scotland to intervene. If they had listened to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice last week and worked with us rather than against us, they would have known that the Scottish Police Authority has already announced that it will carry out a review of stop and search. That body, which has oversight of the police, is the correct one to do that. Graeme Pearson did not recognise that in his amendment for the Labour Party or in his speech. His calls for the cabinet secretary to take control of the police are somewhat bizarre. We have had three parties, working in tandem once again, alleging that the Scottish Government is already interfering in police matters, but now they say that they want it to interfere and intervene. They need to say exactly what it is that they want.
We should support the police in the tough job that they do, and it is of concern that members who are here today question police officers’ professionalism. What would those members say to police officers, who risk their lives?
We should welcome the record drop in crime and recognise that the policy has helped to achieve safer streets and communities. The policy has prevented crimes. What would those members say to people in local communities who would be victims of crime if we did not use stop and search to deter it? I ask them to look at themselves.
Communities also have rights, and they have seen an incredible drop in crime and the carrying of offensive weapons—knives and other weapons. Stop and search is working in that respect, and we are looking at a review. Is that not the proper way to go, instead of supporting the motion, whose purpose is basically just to score political points and which does nothing whatsoever to help communities out there or the kids I mentioned? The Lib Dems seem not to realise that stopping and searching those kids protected them from any further harm.
15:11