No Trivial Headline, No Puns - Why Stop And Search Is No Laughing Matter.

Young people and students must be protected by the police, no matter what age or ethnicity they are. Young Black and Asian men in particular are more likely to be a target for unwarranted harassment and worse from our police forces. Here students illustrate their experiences with stop and search, and why it must end.

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Research by Release, showed that Black people were 6.3 times more likely to be stopped and searched for drugs than white people.

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Shreya was speaking at an all party parliamentary group in parliament and was reading through his notes beforehand. This was considered to be suspicious activity.

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Black and Asian women are also stopped and searched, which is often overlooked. This is particularly the case for Muslim women wearing the Hijab.

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Half the stop searches carried out by the Metropolitan police in London were on young people aged 21 years or below. Almost 16,900 were of children aged 15 or below.

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

On one of the 15 times Piers got stopped and searched that month, he was on his way to a youth parliament meeting with a Chief Constable. When the officers searching him found that out, they instantly changed their tune and offered him a lift to the meeting.

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

According to the Home Secretary, stop and search has been misused, representing an "enormous waste of police time" which is also "hugely damaging to the relationship between the police and the public".

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

At present, police can stop someone if they have reasonable grounds to suspect they are carrying illegal drugs, a weapon, stolen property or something which could be used to commit a crime, such as a crowbar.

Legally, this is based on Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 which allows a police officer to stop and search a person without suspicion. However, according to the campaign group Liberty, Section 60 stops and searches can only take place in a specific area which has been authorised by a senior police officer, when they believe that violence has occurred or is about to occur, and where it is necessary to prevent it or search people for a weapon if one was involved in the incident.

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Figures show that 90% of searches lead to no further action.

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography / Via idjphotography.com

Stop and search is stop is a discriminatory and disproportionate tactic, which is why in the run up to the general election, NUS is calling on the Government to remove random stop and search powers from the police.

All photo credit to Darren Johnson / iDJ Photography (Facebook & Twitter)