An Evaluation of the Recommendations of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry on Stops and Searches Nick Bland, Joel Miller and Paul Quinton
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Paper 128: Upping the PACE? An evaluation of the recommendations Stehen Lawrence Inquiry on stops and searches Paper 128: Upping the PACE? Police Research Series Paper 128 Upping the PACE? An evaluation of the recommendations of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry on stops and searches Nick Bland, Joel Miller and Paul Quinton Nick Bland Joel Miller Paul Quinton Police Research Series Paper 128 Upping the PACE? An evaluation of the recommendations of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry on stops and searches Nick Bland Joel Miller Paul Quinton Editor: Carole F. Willis Home Office Policing and Reducing Crime Unit Research, Development and Statistics Directorate Clive House, Petty France London, SW1H 9HD © Crown Copyright 2000 First Published 2000 Policing and Reducing Crime Unit: Police Research Series The Policing and Reducing Crime Unit (PRC Unit) is part of the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office. The PRC Unit carries out and commissions research in the social and management sciences on policing and crime reduction. The Police Research Series presents research material on crime prevention and detection as well as police management and organisation issues. “The views expressed in this report are those of the author, not necessarily those of the Home Office (nor do they reflect Government policy).” ISBN 1-84082-523-5 Copies of this publication can be made available in formats accessible to the visually impaired on request. (ii) Foreword This is the second report produced from a programme of research on stops and searches carried out by the Home Office’s Policing and Reducing Crime Unit (Research, Development and Statistics Directorate). This programme was developed following the Report of the Inquiry into the Death of Stephen Lawrence. That report highlighted minority ethnic communities’ lack of trust and confidence in the use of stops and searches and recommended that the police should make a record of all stops and all searches of the public. This study describes the results of a national pilot of this recommendation. The evaluation of the pilot draws on interviews with police officers, an extensive period of observation of police patrol, public views and police statistics of recorded stops and searches. The study highlights significant under-recording, particularly of stops, which places in doubt the accuracy of the picture produced from police statistics. It was clear that the level of under-recording was due, in part, to the difficulty of precisely defining a police stop. Still, some officers were recording selectively. The study suggests that the recommendations may have important symbolic value in highlighting to officers the significance of stop and search encounters for the public and the consequent need for thought and care in conducting them. Members of the public interviewed for this study saw benefit in receiving written information about the reason for the stop, the name of the officer who stopped them, their rights and police powers. It was clear though that public trust and confidence is primarily based on being treated fairly and with respect and being given a good reason for the stop, rather than on changes in procedure. The study concludes that the positive impact of the recommendations is still unlikely, on its own, to tackle sufficiently fairness and public confidence in stops and searches. Changes in procedures need to be accompanied by improved fairness in the application of the procedures by the police if public confidence is to improve. CAROLE F. WILLIS Head of Policing and Reducing Crime Unit Research, Development and Statistics Directorate Home Office September 2000 (iii) Acknowledgements The design and implementation of the pilot relied on the time and commitment of many people. We would like to thank everyone from the four pilot forces who were involved, particularly: Assistant Chief Constable David Coleman (who was also the ACPO representative for the project), Chief Inspector Maddy Parnell and Sergeant Lee Grant of Leicestershire Constabulary. From the Metropolitan Police Service, former Assistant Commissioner Denis O’Connor (now Chief Constable, Surrey Police), Deputy Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, Superintendent Mike Simmons, Superintendent Sara Thornton, Chief Inspector Simon Ovens, Inspector Frank Brown and Inspector Cheryl Burden. Deputy Chief Constable John Cullum, Superintendent Geoff Munns and Inspector Mike Bacon of Suffolk Constabulary. Chief Superintendent Steve Priestley and Chief Inspector Gerry Broadbent of West Yorkshire Police. We received crucial help from many research colleagues with the fieldwork for the evaluation. Karen Bullock and Gareth Harper contributed significantly in both police interviews and periods of observation in the pilot sites. Thanks are also due to Yasmine Baladi, Samantha Ankrah and Katy Knock who all helped with interviews. The Authors Nick Bland heads the Police-Community Relations section in the Policing and Reducing Crime Unit (PRC). Joel Miller and Paul Quinton are also members of this section. PRCU would like to thank Dr David Dixon, Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, and Professor Mike McConville of Warwick University for acting as independent assessors for this report. (iv) Executive summary The Report of the Inquiry into the Matters Arising from the Death of Stephen Lawrence highlighted minority ethnic communities’ lack of trust and confidence in the police, particularly in relation to stops and searches. The Report thus recommended that the police should make a record of all stops and all searches of the public. The record should be given to the person stopped and should include the reason and outcome of the stop and how the person described their ethnic background. The Policing and Reducing Crime Unit (PRC) in the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate was commissioned to pilot this recommendation and evaluate its viability. This report describes the pilot and presents the results of the evaluation. Some stops culminate in a search; others do not. Throughout the report, for clarity, any stops that include searches are termed ‘searches’ and all other stops are termed ‘stops’. The pilot To ensure that the proposed recommendations were tested across a range of policing environments, the pilot was conducted across five police areas in four police forces: Leicestershire Constabulary, the Metropolitan Police Service, Suffolk Constabulary and West Yorkshire Police. The sites covered urban and rural areas, with different mixes of ethnic population. The pilot ran for at least six months across all sites and finished at the end of May 2000. All the sites are continuing with the changes until a decision is made by the Home Office about any national implementation. A definition of a ‘stop’ with detailed guidance was developed for the purposes of the pilot: it set out the types of encounter that should be recorded by the police as stops. The definition included any encounter where a person was ‘called to account’ for their actions or presence. The pilot also tested the use of two different designs of stop form. One design was used simply for recording stops and searches. The other design combined this stop record with two existing traffic forms: the HO/RT1 (which requires a driver to produce their traffic documents at a police station within seven days), and the VDRS (which is used to record illegal vehicle defects and requires the driver to provide proof at a police station that they have been mended). Two different ways of recording a person’s self-described ethnic origin were also tested: one using an open question, the other using the set of fixed categories to be used in the 2001 census. (v) The evaluation The evaluation comprised four elements: G interviews with over 100 operational police officers, supervisors and managers at the beginning and end of the pilot; G over 340 hours of observations of routine patrol work across all sites; G in-depth interviews with 55 people stopped or searched during the pilot and 12 discussion groups with 104 people from the pilot sites; and G statistics produced from the police records made during the pilot. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report (sometimes referred to as the Macpherson Report) did not specify the intended impact of the piloted changes though it did point to the need to increase public trust and confidence in the police, particularly that of ethnic minorities, through openness and accountability. Based on this, and drawing from research which identifies continuing problems with the regulation of searches, the research focused on evaluating the impact of the changes in three main areas: G monitoring and accountability of stops and searches; G public trust and confidence in police use of stops and searches; and G officers’ practice in terms of stops and searches. The evaluation did not aim simply to identify whether specific outcomes had resulted from the changes but also sought to explain how and why these outcomes were produced. Results: monitoring and accountability Each site developed and maintained databases to record the information from the new stop forms. This information was also sent to the researchers for the purposes of the evaluation. Data capture and management was resource intensive for both the researchers and the pilot sites. The most significant costs for the pilot forces related to printing new stop forms and additional clerical support to input the information from the forms onto a database. The data collected centrally provided the basis for an assessment of the viability of the new records as a basis for monitoring and accountability. This showed there were difficulties in producing statistical measures of the reasons and outcomes of stops or searches. Reasons and outcomes tended to be recorded by officers using written text which precluded easy coding for statistical purposes. The record of the specific article sought by an officer (the object of a search) was most easily presented. (vi) The evaluation examined how written explanations might, nonetheless, still be useful for monitoring by supervisors, or as a basis for accountability to the person stopped.