With home secretary Priti Patel writing to police forces across the country announcing the easing of restrictions on stop-and-search powers our special report takes an in-depth look on how the controversial measures could play out in Bolton.

Sweeping new police powers coming to effect in Bolton must be “proportionate” with more than 1,200 searches already carried out over two years.

The borough has already been hit hard by knife crime in recent times, with powers granted by home secretary Priti Patel set allow police vastly increased opportunities to stop-and-search people even without “reasonable suspicion.”

But Crompton Councillor Rabiya Jiva, who serves on Bolton Council’ stronger communities committee, has warned this must go hand in hand with broader campaigns across society, without simply allowing powers to target people of different ethnic, age or class backgrounds more than others.

Cllr Jiva said: “We don’t want to go back to the days when people felt that it was racially motivated, so when we extend the powers we don’t want certain groups to be targeted disproportionately.”

She added: “What we are doing now is going to mitigate risks but what we need is for other bodies in health and education to come together as well."

The Bolton News:

Cllr Rabiya Jiva, who sits on Bolton Council's stronger communities committee 

Finding obtained from Greater Manchester Police under the Freedom of Information Act show that even before the new powers were introduced a total of 1,237 searches have been carried out since 2020.

As a result, 63 weapons were found and 169 people arrested.

Many of these people were arrested for carrying weapons with others having been found with other criminal items.

The number of searches is likely to go up with changes made by Priti Patel to Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act extending the length of time they can be in force for from 15 to 24 hours and the time they can be extended from 39 hours to 48 hours.

Authorising officers also now only need to anticipate that serious violence “may” rather than “will” occur and no longer need to publicly tell communities in advance.

The rank at which officers can authorise the powers has been lowered to inspector, while a superintendent can now extend an authorisation.

But in Bolton, Cllr Jiva has warned that unless health, education and youth services are united in their efforts to tackle knife and gang crime this will not address the root of the problem.

She also believes that the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and cuts to services has made young people even more vulnerable to exploitation by gangs.

In recent months knife and gang crime has involved young people and children of increasingly young ages as evidence when Section 60 stop-and-search powers were activated in April following fears about young people becoming involved in a “fight involving weapons.”

Cllr Jiva said: “We’re going to go on a downward spiral, people will turn to crime potentially to survive, people who don’t have control over their own lives.”

She added: “Where are children meant to go when a single mum is juggling three jobs? These are the people most vulnerable to grooming.

“They prey on vulnerable people because they see the gaps and then can give them that sense of belonging.”

In response she hopes to see public services “expand their boundaries” and bring not only policing bodies but also health authorities and schools together to help find their way to more long-term solutions.

But campaigners like civil liberties group StopWatch, have questioned whether the new powers will even efficiently tackle knife crime.

The group claims that not just in Bolton, but all over the North West the technique has in fact been self-defeating.

Research and policy manager Habib Kadiri said: “StopWatch understands the importance of preserving the peace of an area where there is a risk of violent disorder.

“However, we are concerned that section 60 stops are an incredibly inefficient policing tactic for the purpose.

“This is clear from the Home Office’s own figures, which show that in the year to 2021, of the 948 searches made by police forces in the entire north west of England, none of them resulted in arrests for offensive weapons.

“And with a national find rate for weapons that isn’t much better, one per cent, the use of section 60 so far appears to cause more problems than it solves, including in the emotional trauma suffered by people from marginalised and impoverished communities who are targeted in the name of stopping knife crime.”