Implementation of Recommendation 61

Report: 14
Date: 9 January 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides the impact and progress in the MPS on the Home Secretary’s announcement on phase implementation of Recommendation 61 in the Metropolitan Police area.

A Recommendation

Members are asked to note the current progress in establishing the phased implementation in London.

B. Supporting information

1. At its November meeting, members received a report from the Clerk on developments relating to the phased introduction of Recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report. This report provides further details on the progress to achieve an effective phased introduction in the Metropolitan Police area.

2. The MPS is one of seven police services across the country selected by the Home Office to participate in the phased implementation. The intention of the Home Office is to reflect different policing environments and resident population profile. The other six police services are:

• Merseyside;
• North Wales;
• Nottinghamshire;
• Sussex;
• West Midlands;
• West Yorkshire.

3. The use of a diverse sample will enable the Home Office to identify the most effective approaches to recording stops, find a way that causes the least inconvenience to the public and is not time consuming for both the police and individuals concerned. The most efficient approach identified during the evaluation stages will be used in the subsequent implementation across the police service in England and Wales. The aim of the phased implementation is not about examining whether the introduction of the new recording requirement is feasible, but in evaluating the most effective way of dealing with such encounters.

4. A phased implementation approach will allow the Home Office to evaluate at each stage the best way to achieve this. A series of sub-groups have been set up from the Lawrence Steering Group (LSG) and the stop and search sub group will oversee the phased implementation of Recommendation 61. Doreen Lawrence and Ravi Chand (National Black Police Association) NBPA) from the sub-group will act as observers for the first phase of implementation in the MPS. These observers will provide the main liaison between the Home Office and the sub-group and the MPS. The phased implementation will examine:

• Overall approach used – paper based or IT based;
• Method of recording stops – on paper is it free text or tick box;
• Method of Collating stops database- data from paper forms entered manually or scanned or direct input from hand held machine into the database;
• If entered manually is it the police officer or a support staff carries out this task; and
• How the record of the stop is given to the person stopped – paper copy at the time or sent to them in post or electronically.

5. The Home Office has decided that the MPS, Merseyside, Nottinghamshire, West Midlands will use a paper-based approach, an IT based approach will feature in North Wales and West Yorkshire and existing force approaches in Sussex and West Yorkshire will be followed.

6. The MPS is examining the issues of using mobile technology to increase the police officer’s time on patrolling and to reduce bureaucracy not only in stop and search but other areas such as crime reporting. However, without extensive research, piloting and training, the use of hand-held technology could increase the time of the initial police/public encounter, as it will probably take longer to complete the details than filling a paper form. Whilst this may be mitigated by the “back room” tasks of collating the information, the overriding aim must be to ensure that any technology can withstand the rigors of the policing environment on day-to-day street duty. Any machine must be truly portable for the officers to carry out their full range of daily tasks and early work suggests it will not be practicable to use hand held computers to record stops to coincide with the commencement of the phased implementation of Recommendation 61 on 1 April 2003. The MPS will play close attention to the outcomes of other forces work in this area.

7. The implementation of Recommendation 61 will take place in 3 phases:

• Phase 1. Project Development Implementation on 1 April 2003;
• Phase 2. Implementation and evaluation Time scale 6-12 months;and
• Phase 3. Recommended approaches approved by the Home Secretary.

8. In phase 1 the MPS, MPA and the 2 members of Lawrence Steering Group will:

• Set up a dedicated implementation team;
• Identify the area for implementation considering population size, ethnicity composition and crime problems;
• Prepare proposals for the implementation;
• Develop criteria for measuring the impact of 16+1; and
• Develop systems for management and supervision of data.

9. MPS has set up a team with dedicated responsibility for implementing Recommendation 61. This team includes officers with a strategic perspective as well as those with more hands on roles within the project. This team will be the main point of liaison for the MPA, Home Office and the observers. The Home Office has decided that MPS will use paper-based method to record stops. The implementation team will design the Stops form.

10. The BOCU to be used for the for the first phase of implementation of Recommendation 61 has yet to be identified. However a short list of 4 boroughs has been made using the criteria set by the Home Office. Final decision will be made by the agreement of all three parties MPS,MPA and members of LSG sub-group, involved in this project.

11. It has been decided by the Home Office that the guidance provided in the consultation draft of Code A will form the basis of recording stops “When an officer request a person in a public place to account for themselves i.e. their actions, behaviour, presence in an area or possession of anything, a record of the encounter must be completed at the time and a copy given to the person who has been questioned, this is unless there are exceptional circumstances…… a record of an encounter must always be made when a person requests it, regardless of whether the officer considers that the criteria set out has been met."

12. The evaluation will be co-ordinated by the Home Office (Research, Development and Statistics Directorate) and overseen by the stop and search subgroup of Lawrence Steering Group . It will be possible to feed back the issues from continuous evaluation process back into the implementation sites. The main issues are:

• The implementation process;
• The level of bureaucracy placed on officers by different recording methods;
• The quantity and manageability of information generated by different recording methods;
• Which recording method has positive impact on police practices;
• Which recording method supports public confidence and reassurance in police;
• Cost-effectiveness of different approaches; and
• Accuracy for data for monitoring and accountability.

13. The evaluation will be carried by collating data from various sources including:

• Interviews with Police Officers;
• Interviews with supervisors, monitoring staff and senior managers;
• Interviews with police staff involved in the implementation;
• Other Police statistics;
• Direct observation of police stop practices;
• Police officers survey;
• Interviews with members of public stopped; and
• Available data on costs

14. The MPS is determined that adequate staff training is provided before the implementation of Recommendation 61. Centrex (central police training and development authority) have developed a training package. The MPS will adopt and adapt this package according to their need before the delivery to the officers. Special Notice 12/01 issued on 29 June 2001 provides guidance for constables, supervisors and senior management on their roles and responsibilities on the use of stop and search powers. This notice explains the principles governing stop and search, legislation involved in stop and search, explanation of reasonable grounds, effect of the Human Rights Act and the minimum standards for using the power to stop and search. Borough trainers provided classroom-based training to operational staff in territorial policing and others who routinely exercise this power.

15. MPA will publicise the implementation of Recommendation 61. This will be carried out throughout London. The explanation will include information to the public about their rights and the police powers in a public/police encounter.

16. Commander Broadhurst of the MPS will lead the implementation of Recommendation 61. He will chair the board that will oversee all aspects of this initiative. The board will comprise of members from MPA, MPS, Home Office and Lawrence Steering Group.

17. A Working party in the MPS already exists with regular discussions taking place on the best way to introduce the Recommendation 61 whilst minimising the inconvenience to the public and the police officers. This working party comprises of ACPO rank officers, practitioners of stop and search, Department of Diversity, Public Affairs and members of independent advisory groups. This group will monitor the work carried out by the implementation team. The implementation of self-defined ethnicity (16+1) in the entire MPS is on schedule for 1 April 2003. The IT systems are 16+1 compliant, the BOCU trainers have been trained and the relevant forms have been amended. The stops database that will collate the data is on schedule to be implemented on 1 April 2003.

C. Equality and diversity implications

There is a lack of confidence in the criminal justice system, particularly among minority ethnic communities. The codes of practice have been changed significantly. These include a new obligation on MPS to involve the MPA in the monitoring and supervision of stop and search records by communities, it requires the officer to provide a copy of the record immediately to the person searched. The implementation of Recommendation 61 and changes in the revised Code A will significantly increase both the trust and confidence of the public and of officers using the powers. The Recommendation 61 will provide the opportunity to the person stopped to self-define their ethnic identity according to the classification in Census 2001. This will assist the MPS to monitor the treatment of different ethnic groups in order to improve the service we provide. The involvement of the members of the Lawrence Steering Group in the implementation of Recommendation 61, with taking part in decision making of the sites of implementation, form design, training design and developing effective systems for supervision and monitoring would ensure increase in trust and confidence in policing particularly amongst minority ethnic communities.

D. Financial implications

The cost of the phased implementation of Recommendation 61 can be divided into:

• Training
• Form design/printing
• Additional support for inputting data onto database

On a borough the cost of the new forms and the employment of a dedicated inputter for a year for the phased implementation of Recommendation 61 will be approximately £30000 a year. The training package from Centrex covers stop and search, amendment to Code A and Recommendation 61. This entire training package can be delivered in a classroom in one day. However as this will be extraction from normal duty and not likely to be additional cost. MPS will meet the initial cost of phased implementation and will also bid for the funding from the Home Office for this project, however at this stage the amount of money available from the Home Office is not known. It will be possible to calculate an accurate figure once all the factors affecting the cost become clearer.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Manpreet Bains, Diversity Directorate, MPS.

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback