Letter: Policing the police

Sir: As a serving police officer I was interested by your article "Blacks are targeted for police searches" (8 June). You state that "only one tenth of searches lead to an arrest - which implies that the vast majority are unnecessary." That conclusion is erroneous. One of the aims of the stop search procedure is to render arrests unnecessary by allowing the officer to decide if there is an offence being committed without having to arrest the person concerned.

Equally, it is not always necessary for a person to be arrested for an offence, even if the power to do so exists, for a case to be brought against them.