Sus Laws

The sus (“suspected person”) law was a stop and search law created in the 1824 Vagrancy Act, giving officers powers to arrest anyone they suspected of loitering with the intent to commit an arrestable offence.

From the 1960’s it was used strategically against young Black men, with evidence showing a disproportionate number of young Black men being stopped compared to their white counterparts. In the 1970’s public panic about “muggings” increased the number of young Black men being stopped and searched.

The method is still used today by police. Black people are almost 10 times as likely to be stopped and searched as white people. Three in every 1,000 white people were stopped and searched in 2017/18, compared to 29 in every 1,000 Black people.