Welcome to Croydon: the Stop and Search capital of South London
On day 2 of our investigation into Business Improvement Districts we examine policing in the Town Centre
In the span of a single day in early February, Croydon registered 10 separate knife attacks resulting in multiple injuries and one death. The police response was as swift as it was predictable. Section 60 powers took effect across Croydon allowing local Metropolitan (MET) officers in coordination with other more specialized police teams to employ controversial stop and search tactics en mass. By the end of February, the borough had nearly eclipsed Westminster as the stop and search capital of London, mostly owing to the month-long police maneuver known as Operation Cleveland. When all was said and done, the operation resulted in over 500 searches confined to a vanishingly small patch of West Croydon and the town centre. Just 8% of those searches uncovered a weapon — 43 in total. The rest of what was held up as evidence of the operation’s success consisted of small bags of cannabis.