To save our kids, we must turn them over

Talk to families whose own have been killed or have become vicious street killers - or indeed terrorists - and they ruefully accept that we must return to more pro-active, pre-emptive policing.

My friend Stan, a Caribbean musician, says to me: "I know the history but to save our kids we must empty their pockets, turn them over. These knives and guns are now part of their uniform, their mark of identity. It's a catastrophe. Is this why I left my homeland?"

Times have changed. Race is no longer as clear a marker between victim and perpetrator or criminal and law enforcer.

However, if sus is reinstated, there must be proper monitoring of the behaviour of policemen and women to ensure racial fairness and - more importantly - that the civil liberties of suspects are never violated.

But with those safeguards in place, it seems stop-and-search could actually help a disproportionate number of black and mixed-race families whose children are over-represented in gun and knife crimes, either as victims or perpetrators. Asian families, too, would feel more protected.

The Met has just set up sus units in the capital.

Sure, the innocent who are stopped and interrogated will be angered. But support is emerging among people you would expect to be most resistant, such as Ptrhys Bryant, a black teenager from Hackney whose friend was stabbed in the legs, and Stella Aina, a black social worker from Essex who knows her children will be six times more likely to be searched than white kids.

My friend Gloria, a teacher married to an African, says she gets her son - who has been in trouble with the law - to empty his rucksack and his jacket pockets when he goes out and returns. She wants the police to take over as the boy grows up. Like many black parents, she is prepared to suffer humiliation to stop a greater evil. But the police must behave impeccably, otherwise mistrust will return to our streets, and with it more violence.