STOP AND SEARCH APP

That this House welcomes the launch of a stop and search app, a mobile telephone application devised by young people from London which is aimed at making police stop and search procedures transparent and at providing police forces with feedback which could be used to build trust in the police by disenfranchised young people living in inner cities across the UK; acknowledges that stop and search is an essential tool for the police in their battle against crime in the UK and that police forces are looking into ways of obtaining feedback from people who are searched to improve their service standards; welcomes the news that the app has just been made available for download for all seven million BlackBerry service users in the UK and that the app will be running on all major mobile telephone platforms by July 2012; and supports the promotion of the app in schools and local communities as a means of providing greater understanding of the rights of those who are searched and to ensure that the relationship between young people and the police is kept balanced and mutually respectful.