[Wolves] OT: police powers?

[Simon Morris]

Kevanf1 wrote:
> I apologise to everybody for this totally OT topic but I did not know
> where else to ask.
> 
> What powers do the police have concerning stopping schoolchildren (in
> uniform so obviously schoolchildren) in the street?  Two officers, one
> male one female with no other adults and they were in an unmarked
> Freelander.  My family and I just witnessed these two stop loads of
> kids and checked through their school bags.  They then wrote down
> notes.  No teachers about.  It seemed to be that they were stopping
> each and every kid that walked down the road.

I am no expert on this at all but my vague recollection is...

Stop and Search involves some amount of paperwork - the member of the 
public should leave with some sort of documentation with the details of 
the police office and why (s)he was searched

There may well be different laws for minors with regards to this.

However - My opinion is that I'd rather read a mailing list post from 
you about children being searched on the way to school than see on the 6 
o'clock news another child was stabbed to death in the classroom.

Maybe they were acting on specific intelligence about a child bringing a 
  knife to school - maybe this was a show of force to deter kids 
bringing them to school.

~sm