CONTROVERSIAL terrorism powers are used by Redbridge Police 17 times a day.

According to the latest Met figures, 5887 people and 401 vehicles in the borough were stopped or searched by officers using Section 44 of the Terrorism Act between January 2008 and January 2009.

This equates to one person every hour-and-a-half being searched or asked to account for their actions, behaviour or presence in an area without the need for suspicion.

Those targeted more frequently were males aged between 21 and 40, with white people stopped the most, followed by Asians and then black people.

But according to the latest population profile available in the 2001 Census, Asian and black people were disproportionably targeted under the laws, as together they were stopped in 51 per cent of cases despite only making up 23 per cent of the local demographic.

According to the same set of data, white people should also have been stopped in 20 per cent more cases to account for their prevalence in the community.

While searches under the Terrorism Act are conducted randomly, other stop and search procedures currently require a reason for suspicion since protests from the black community following the 1980 Brixton Riots.

Calls have recently been made to reduce the use of the Terrorism Act, with civil liberties groups claiming the powers have been misemployed against anti-war, anti-weapons and anti-capitalist protestors.

Police Borough Commander Peter Terry said: "Stop and search is carried out professionally and proportionately.

"Many factors come into play when deciding who to search and this can affect the figures.

"For example many more men than females are searched, but data would suggest more men are involved in crime.

"Searches are skewed to younger people, however younger people are more prevalent in public places and the street population invariably impacts upon the search figures.

"The measure you ask for comment upon is simplistic and doesn't take account of any of the above or other complicated factors.

"What the public need to be confident of is that the officers act fairly when using this highly valuable tactic and therefore we maintain the confidence of all of our citizens."