APPENDIX 1 Police and Crime Committee Stop and search An investigation of the Met's new approach to stop and search February 2014 Photo credit: Janine Wiedel/REX ©Greater London Authority February 2014 APPENDIX 1 Police and Crime Committee Members Joanne McCartney (Chair) Labour Jenny Jones (Deputy Chair) Green Caroline Pidgeon MBE (Deputy Chair) Liberal Democrat Tony Arbour Conservative Jennette Arnold OBE Labour John Biggs Labour Victoria Borwick Conservative Len Duvall Labour Roger Evans Conservative Contact: Claire Hamilton Email: [email protected] Tel: 020 7983 5845 2 APPENDIX 1 Contents Foreword 4 Summary 6 1. Introduction 8 2. Ensuring an accurate account of stop and search 14 3. Developing a culture of accountability 18 4. Ensuring rights are enforced 22 5. Developing a learning culture 26 6. Involving young people in change 31 7. Conclusion 35 8. Summary of recommendations 36 9. Appendices 38 Orders and translations 48 3 APPENDIX 1 Foreword As a long-time opponent of the Met’s extensive use of the stop and search tactic, I was delighted when the new Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, announced his intention to cut back on the number with his “StopIt” programme. This report seeks to assess the impact of that programme and suggests ways to improve things further still. Currently, over the course of a year, the Met carries out over 320,000 stop and searches. This means that every hour, at least 35 Londoners are stopped and searched. A further 375,000 people are asked to stop and account for their actions. We have asked whether this is a good use of the police’s time and energy. There is a positive story to tell: the volume of stop and search has reduced by over 40 percent in just two years, and arrest rates have improved; they were consistently around 15 per cent during 2013. Section 60 stops have fallen even further, by over 90 per cent. But this is only part of the story. The quality of the encounter also matters. When the police get it wrong, it adds to the resentment and mistrust that some communities have of the Met, impacting badly on community relations. This has consequences for every Londoner as it will affect the public’s willingness to talk to the police and cooperate with investigations. The Met’s leadership seems to understand why it is so important that they get stop and search right, but this has not reached every officer on the beat. Our investigation, like many before us, found that the rights protecting Londoners are routinely ignored by some officers. 4 APPENDIX 1 Some young Londoners do believe that the Met recognises their concerns and is committed to change, but they need to know more about the changes the Met is actually making. Londoners also need to have confidence that the police are being properly held to account for their use of these powers. More needs to be done to ensure this is the case, and that role largely falls to the Mayor’s Office, which should be systematically sampling the Met’s stop and search records to ensure the positive story being told by the police is based on accurate records. As the Met tries to improve their relationship with the citizens they protect, they must keep improving their stop and searches. Leaders must keep up the pressure and the Mayor should lead the way in setting out the standards that Londoners can expect. I should like to thank all of our expert witnesses who made such an important contribution to our report, as well as the young people who took part in our research with huge energy and enthusiasm. Jenny Jones AM Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb Chair of the Stop and Search Working Group 5 APPENDIX 1 Summary The reaction to the inquest into the shooting of Mark Duggan has yet again shone a spotlight on the mistrust between some communities and the Met. Senior officers have spoken about the need to do more to build community confidence and trust, particularly among young black men. Stop and search must be central to this change; it is a powerful symbol of the tension that exists between the Met and many Londoners. In this report we review the evidence of the change in the Met’s strategy for using stop and search. We commend the Commissioner for achieving a step change in reducing the number of stop and searches that the Met carries out and for trying to change its use of powers, particularly the more indiscriminate Section 60 searches. A new approach arrives with each Commissioner but on this occasion the numbers tell us that there has been a significant change in the Met's strategy for stop and search. Our research shows that some young people have noticed this change in practice. They are impressed that the Met is achieving better outcomes from far fewer stop and searches and feel it shows a real effort on the part of the police. However, quantitative reporting by the Met does not always reflect people’s experiences on the streets; the Met does not record car stops or stop and account, for example. Furthermore, we have heard that some police officers are failing to record their use of stop and search – the Met acknowledges that around five per cent of searches may go unrecorded – which casts doubt on what we still believe is genuine progress in reducing the volume of stop and search. And it is not just about the numbers: the Met must also secure a step change in individual stop and search encounters. Improvements in the quality of stop and search must go hand-in-hand with the reduction in their number. Public perceptions are damaged primarily when encounters are of poor quality. The impressive fall in the number of stop and searches does not necessarily tell us that stop and search is always being carried out legally, fairly and with respect. Therefore we are concerned that despite damning conclusions from Sir William Macpherson and Lord Scarman, many of the same concerns identified in the 1980s about how some officers use their stop and search powers still exist over thirty years later. More recent criticism from the Communities and Victims Panel led to new impetus from the Met’s leadership but is not translated into experiences on the street. Despite scrutiny from the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Her 6 APPENDIX 1 Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), many officers are not being effectively held to account for how they use their powers. If the Met is to reverse the scepticism caused by decades of misuse, the commitment to address concerns about stop and search must be maintained and strengthened. The primary challenge for the Met is to ensure that the guidance governing how officers use their powers is properly adhered to. Unfortunately some officers continue to ignore the laws that are designed to support policing by consent, to protect public freedoms and ultimately to police the police. Our report highlights how, for the Met to move on, it is a focus on the quality of the interaction between police officers and the community that matters. The young people we spoke to, who were aged between 15 and 25, want to experience change on the ground with the police carrying out stop and search properly and sticking to the rules. Until individual officers are held to account for the use and abuse of their powers – and accept and welcome this challenge – the public’s experience of stop and search will remain a barrier to improvements in public confidence and therefore the effectiveness of the Met. While some parts of the Met have good processes in place to do this, it is not consistent across London. Our report sets out the case for further changes to secure genuine public confidence in stop and search. We urge the Mayor and Commissioner to recognise the need for greater individual accountability and not be complacent in the face of initially promising figures about the use of stop and search. Our recommendations seek to: • Secure public confidence in stop and search data by ensuring full and accurate recording and reporting of stop and search. • Ensure that the Met uses it powers according to the rules through better oversight of stop and search records. • Help people to understand their rights to empower them to challenge poor practice. • Support the Met’s efforts to increase the volume of feedback they receive about stop and search. • Strengthen scrutiny of how the Met uses stop and search by clarifying MOPAC’s role in holding the Met to account. • Improve officers’ understanding about why the quality of stop and search matters by formally including young people in stop and search training. 7 APPENDIX 1 1. Introduction Key Finding Stop and search has a contentious history and remains a key source of tension between the Met police and some Londoners. Public concerns about how the powers are used need to be tackled if the Met is to achieve the Mayor’s public confidence target. The Met has acknowledged that change is needed and its “StopIt” campaign is making welcome progress to improve effectiveness. The Committee set out to investigate what impact this is having on Londoners’ experiences of and attitudes to stop and search. Stop and search powers 1.1. Stop and search are wide-ranging powers available to police, which the Met has had as a policing tool since it was established in 1829. In recent years, the Met increased its use of stop and search significantly, despite the figures remaining largely static in the rest of the country.