Implementation Of Recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry

Report: 07a
Date: 04 December 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

Recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry seeks to establish a system whereby a record is made by police officers of all stops and stop and searches. This report outlines the progress being made towards implementation within the Metropolitan Police Service.

A. Recommendations

That the report be noted:

B. Supporting information

Hackney

1. The recording of all stops (Rec 61) continues at Hackney with an average of 368 stops per month compared to a monthly average of 849 searches. The chart below shows the breakdown of stops and searches since April: 

2. The Home Office evaluation continues although Paul Quinton has moved on to other duties and Jide Olagundoye has taken on sole responsibility for monitoring the pilot sites. Hackney continues to perform well in terms of stop activity which is a credit to the officers and management on the borough. The SMT at Hackney, led by Chief Inspector Don Smith, intrusively supervise all stop activity and have put together a database of frequently asked questions that have arisen from staff. This will prove extremely beneficial when Recommendation 61 is implemented MPS wide.

3. MORI have begun their public survey and the initial results are disappointing. Four of the pilot sites, Hackney, Nottingham, West Midlands and North Wales, supplied a total of 425 stop forms to MORI where members of the public had indicated that they were willing to be interviewed. For a variety of reasons only 34 interviews were conducted so the results are statistically insignificant and are not repeated here. Hackney provided a sample of 141 forms of which seven resulted in a successful interview. There are a number of reasons for this poor take up some of which include poor or inaccurate recording of addresses by officers. These issues are being looked at by Chief Inspector Smith. MORI are now looking to conduct a number of qualitative interviews across the pilot sites, the results of which will not be known for some time.

Tower Hamlets

4. Tower Hamlets was identified as the borough to trial the hand-held IT as set out in the Project Initiation Document for Recommendation 61. In order to test the IT, it is essential that all officers and staff in the borough engage in Recommendation 61. The training cycle at Tower Hamlets is now complete and 93% of all operational officers have completed the package which included a pre-read, a three hour training session and SMT facilitated discussion. All non-operational staff will receive a briefing before the go-live date of 1 December 2003. The training was assessed by the Diversity Directorate trainers who, in summary, found that training was delivered at the appropriate level, all CRR aspects were covered, staff were left knowing the ethos of Recommendation 61 along with their roles and responsibilities and the fact that it was community focused. Subject to a written report from the Diversity Directorate, the Tower Hamlets package is likely to be the one rolled out to the rest of the MPS.

5. Tower Hamlets have set up a Monitoring Group chaired by their MPA representative, Abdul Ullah. The Borough Commander, Mark Simmons, has been on the local radio station discussing its introduction and Abdul Ullah, Michelle Elkin and Luke Knight have devised a radio advert which has gone out on local radio in English and Bengali. In addition, the borough have created a bespoke advert in a Ramadan publication, designed a calendar for Ramadan of which 40,000 have been distributed amongst the Moslem community in Tower Hamlets and surrounding boroughs and are about to release another publication for EID which will go into the Bangla Mirror, a national publication.
6. The hand-held IT device being tested is the Panasonic P1, together with a compatible printer. The kit is bulky and caused some concern when shown at the last EODB. Tower Hamlets officers, and the local Federation, are keen to use the equipment and will pass comment on any aspects that prove impractical. Sixteen officers will be trained on 28 November and will begin using the PDAs on 1 December 2003. The first 16 devices will have stop search and PNC functionality. A further 59 devices will be introduced in January with the addition of access to emails on Aware. The initiative will be evaluated by Leeds University.

Publicity

7. There has been considerable delay in producing publicity posters for Recommendation 61. A new range of images has now been produced by the DPA which will more closely represent the diverse population of London. It is hoped that these images will be agreed by the Chair of EODB thus allowing swift publication in Hackney and Tower Hamlets. A wider range of images will then be available for boroughs to select during MPS wide roll out.

MPS wide implementation

8. Following advice from the Stephen Lawrence Sub Group on Stop and Search, the Home Secretary has set 1 April 2005 as the date for the national implementation of Recommendation 61. In doing so, he has urged police forces to consider an IT solution so the Tower Hamlets pilot will put the MPS in a strong position. At a specially convened meeting of the MPS Recommendation 61 Steering Group it was agreed that MPS wide implementation should begin on a set date rather than be phased in. Following the learning at Hackney and Tower Hamlets an implementation pack is being put together that will include training, communications and monitoring as key components. This pack is unlikely to be ready until the end of January. 

9. Experience has shown that boroughs need a lead in time of at least four months to complete the necessary preparation before implementation. The MPS wish to implement Recommendation 61 before the date set by the Home Secretary. The most obvious starting date would be 1 April 2004 but this is likely to be impractical given the required lead in time. It has been suggested to the Deputy Commissioner, via Diversity Board, that a more realistic start date would be 1 July 2004. This gives boroughs sufficient time to prepare and would ensure implementation begins before the roll out of C3i and the consequent disruption to training.

C. Equality and diversity implications

There is a lack of confidence in the criminal justice system, particularly among minority ethnic communities in relation to stop/search activity. The implementation of Recommendation 61 and changes in the revised Code A will significantly increase both the trust and confidence of the public in policing. Recommendation 61 will provide the opportunity for 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.

D. Financial implications

Expenditure is contained within existing budgets.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Commander Robert Broadhurst, TPHQ

For more information contact:

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

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