Recommendation 61 Monitoring Group

Report: 08b - Report not considered by the committee
Date: 16 October 2003
By: Clerk

Summary

This report provides an update on the monitoring groups in Hackney and Tower Hamlets.

A. Recommendations

That Members

1. agree that the Monitoring Group hold a public meeting to inform the community of the progress of the implementation.
2. Note the issues regarding the publicity surrounding implementation.

B. Supporting information

Public meeting

1. Following the recommendation by the Chair that the Hackney Monitoring Group postpone the planned public meeting to inform the Hackney community about the progress and issues arising from the implementation of Recommendation 61, the Monitoring Group is awaiting the outcome of this meeting, when it is hoped that the EODB will give its agreement for this meeting to take place.

Local stop data

2. The Monitoring Group was able to closely monitor the stops data of the Hackney officers, as a direct result of the request made to Hackney police for monitoring data in July.

3. The information proved to be extremely informative and the Group will continue to monitor the data over time. The number of stops of BME groups continues to be extremely high and Hackney police have been asked to provide more summary information and possible explanations of the data being received.

4. Some of the issues raised at the September meeting included:

Publicity poster

5. The Hackney police sought the views of the Monitoring Groups on a draft poster, which it was intending to use throughout the borough. There was a unanimous view that both the wording used and the images were inappropriate and would fail to attract the majority population likely to be stopped in Hackney who are young black males.

6. Hackney police agreed to review the designs and circulate the updates to all the Monitoring Group members for comments. The consultation on this is still underway.

Tower Hamlets Monitoring Group

7. The Borough Commander has established a local Monitoring Group who would provide the overview of the Recommendation 61 Implementation in the Borough. Abdal Ullah, MPA member has been invited to chair this group. The Borough Commander agreed that an MPA Officer could attend these meetings.

8. The issue regarding the provisions of reports to the EODB and the community have been discussed with the Borough Commander: it remains to be clarified exactly how this will be done – especially as the group is an MPS Group and is therefore accountable to the Service.

9. Offices will be holding detailed discussions on this and will brief the chair and members on the outcome.

10. The Monitoring Group model in Hackney has proved very useful. Members may be of the view that there should be a similar community representative group in Tower Hamlets. If this is the case, there are a number of organisations with whom the MPA can work to establish such a Group. Alternatively the EODB can request that regular reporting are provided and see that the community is regularly updated on the initiative.

Know Your Rights leaflets

11. Several boxes of the leaflets have now been circulated to a range of organisations. These will also be sent to community and voluntary organisations in Tower Hamlets to inform the community of the implementation that will take place in November.

Home Office initiative

12. Representatives from the Home Office Recommendation 61 Evaluation Team will attend the Monitoring Group meetings. They are also particularly interested in observing the public meetings, which this Board still need to agree.

13. Following the recent meeting of the Home Secretary Lawrence Steering Group Stop and Search Sub Group, it has been agreed that the Home Office will produce guidance to all police services and police authorities to assist them in their preparation for the full implementation of Recommendation 61 by 2005.

14. Discussions are also underway on whether a national form should be introduced. It is the Home Office intent to resolve these issues by December 2003.

C. Equality and diversity implications

The implementation of Recommendation 61 will play a key role meeting the key ministerial priorities in the Lawrence inquiry report to increase trust and confidence in policing for all police services. Local groups that are accountable to the communities they serve can play a significant role in bringing about confidence.

D. Financial implications

There are no financial implications associated with the report.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Julia Smith, MPA.

For more information contact:

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

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