Almost 700 stop and searches were carried out across the Ham&High readership area this year, figures show.

Official statistics released on the police.uk website show that 677 stop and searches were carried out across Camden, Highgate, Crouch End and Maida Vale between January and March 2023.

It comes just a month after the Government’s new Public Order Bill came into effect on May 3, enhancing police stop and search powers to cover seizing objects that could be used in disruptive protests.

The area around Euston station saw the most stop and searches in the first three months of the year, with 261 recorded.

The majority of these were looking for controlled drugs, with 218 of these stop and searches taking place.

Other reasons given for using the powers included searching for stolen goods (eight), offensive weapons (six) and psychoactive substances (two).

A total of 27 ‘other’ stop and searches were also carried out in this part of Camden.  

The area with the fewest number of stop and searches was Belsize Park, where just five instances were recorded this year.

There were two in January, one ‘offensive weapons’ search in February and two for ‘controlled drugs’ in March.

Here are the number of stop and searches for each area:

  • Belsize Park - 5
  • Camden Town - 141
  • Crouch End - 25
  • Hampstead Town - 17
  • Highgate - 20
  • Junction - 44
  • Maida Vale - 74
  • Primrose Hill - 36
  • Regent's Park - 54
  • Regent's Park (Euston) - 261