‘Lazy lewd loiterers': 1 the Vagrancy Act to date and the inglorious history of ‘Sus'

This chapter devotes space to the history of 'sus' or 'frequenting', as the furore over it in the late 1970s again brought the whole of the Vagrancy Act into question. The abolition of 'Sus' was thus already in the pipeline when further black riots, starting in Brixton, erupted in the spring and summer of 1981. The Metropolitan Police were, however, sufficiently aware of disquiet to restrict the right to make 'sus' arrests to senior officers from 1977, following a police working party's recommendation, but the subject was about to take on a new and potentially explosive dimension. The abolition of 'Sus' was thus already in the pipeline when further black riots, starting in Brixton, erupted in the spring and summer of 1981. The police could nip in in good time on a 'sus' charge to prevent a serious shock to the victim, say by an attempted bag-snatch.