Recommendation 61 Monitoring Group - Hackney

Report: 06b
Date: 05 February 2004
By: Clerk

Summary

The report is presented updated members on the progress of the Monitoring Group in Hackney and bring to members attention the good practice that is emerging and its impact on national practice.

A. Recommendations

That members

1. Agree the proposal outlined in paragraph 8 for taking the work in Hackney to its next stage; and
2. Comment on the proposal outlined in paragraphs 12 and 13 to prepare for the Met wide roll out of recommendation 61 Autumn 2004.

B. Supporting information

1. The monitoring group continues to meet on a 6-8 weekly basis at the Hackney Learning Trust. Attendance by the community and voluntary organisations have waned due to staff changes, and the Group is looking into widening the membership.

2. At the most recent Home Office Conference on the implementation of Police Stops (23 January 2003) the Minister for Policing, Hazel Blair commended the Metropolitan Police Authority for the innovative work that it is undertaking in Hackney to ensure that the local community is engaged in the implementation and monitoring of Recommendation 61 in Hackney. Julia Smith (MPA) and Chief inspector, Don Smith (MPS) of Hackney co-presented a series of workshops explaining the steps and actions taken by the MPA and MPS launch and implementation of the Scheme.

3. A range of sample information including the joint MPA/MPS Recommendation 61 communication strategy, joint letter by the MPA Chair, Toby Harris and the Deputy Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair were made available to delegates. All workshops were well attended and there was clearly a great deal of interest in the approach presented by the MPA, which appears to be the only police authority in England and Wales that have been actively involved in the implementation of Recommendation 61.

Community feedback meeting

4. The Chair of the Board, Cecile Wright, with the assistance of Councillor Julius Nkafu, Chair of the Hackney Safety Communities Partnership and Commander Bob Broadhurst facilitated a community meeting in Hackney on 10 December 2003 and used the opportunity to feedback to the public how the implementation was being progressed. There was high interest in the data that was presented by the MPS.

5. The public meeting was not highly attended, however one member of the public who attended has since become a member of Local Monitoring group. This is proving a useful and valid addition to the group.

Data monitoring and analysis

6. The local group continues to scrutinise the data presented, however the lack of commentary on the data by Hackney police continues to present difficulties in making sense of the data. The data presented at the January meeting is enclosed as appendix 1 for members only. It is on the website and is also available from the MPA Secretariat (020 7202 0182).

7. The lack of the resource locally to provide analysis and commentary on the data is a problem, which continues in spite of the best efforts of the local police, who have been extremely accommodating in providing a range of data to the Group. There appears to be a lack of urgency or importance placed on the need for this type of information which would greatly assist and enable the local management and Monitoring Group in the overview of the local implementation this operations.

8. Members will recall that Councillor Julius Nkafu raised this as a matter requiring urgent attention at the December meeting of this Board. It is now proposed the Chair of this Board should bring to the attention of the AC Tim Godwin as a matter of urgency.

9. Recent research carried out by the Home Office Race and Criminal Justice Unit have indicate that the problem of the lack of data analysis highlighted by the Monitoring Group in Hackney is not unique to that Borough, or indeed to the MPS. There appears to be a general lack of importance placed on the analysis of the vast and extremely valuable data that is held by the police service.

10. The ability to make sense of local Borough data will be important for the London wide rollout of the Implementation of recommendation 61. It is hoped that this can be addressed over the coming months so that the MPS management can take action to support the valuable work that Police Officers will be engaged at borough level. The Monitoring group is of the view is that its ability to monitor the police has been hampered by the lack of this provision by the Borough.

Stop and search forms

11. The MPS are in the process of revising the stops form, and members of the Monitoring Group have had the opportunity to comment on the redesign. There continues to be the concern that the current draft does not have the capacity to record an individual’s nationality. It is hoped that the final version would address this.

Monitoring arrangements for the MPS wide implementation of Recommendation 61

12. Proposals are underway by the MPS for full rollout of Police Stops by autumn 2004. The Authority will need to fully consider the processes and structures that it will want to put in place to overview the London wide implementation, whilst ensuring that local communities are encouraged and supported in working in partnership with each Borough to monitor and feed back the outcomes to the community.

13. An independent evaluation of the level of community knowledge and involvement in the Hackney implementation is underway and will be completed by May/June 2004. The report will bring proposals for the monitoring structures that could be considered by the Authority for monitoring the London-wide implementation.

Tower Hamlets Monitoring Group

14. MPA staff has not been actively involved in the implementation in Tower Hamlets, and to date, no information has been received. MPA staff has not been able to actively pursue the information, due to a lack of staff resources. Abdal Ullah, the MPA Link Member continues to be actively involved in the local Group that is monitoring the implementation.

Home Office evaluation of the implementation of Recommendation 61 in Hackney

15. Members will be aware that the Home Office has contracted with Mori to evaluate the success or otherwise of the interaction of stops. This has required the researchers to contact individuals who have been stopped and asking about their experience of the encounter. Unfortunately, the Home Office have reported that approximately 64% of all Stops forms completed, Officers were given wrong addresses. This has had the significant impact on the ability of the researchers to complete the research; it has also highlighted a potential Civil Liberties issue concerning the level and types of personal information that appears to be routinely requested by police forces when recording a Stop, especially as there is no statutory basis for carrying out a Stop.

16. The Home Office and the Lawrence Stop and Search Sub Group is looking into this, and will be producing guidance to forces so that they can take this into account when designing their forms. The LSG will also be issuing guidance re the form design, however, as the MPS is already well underway in designing the form that it will use for the Implementation, there may be the need for further revisions to me made, depending on the outcome of the guidance issued.

C. Equality and diversity implications

The successful implementation of Recommendation 61, and the active involvement of local communities in monitoring the police performance and practice in this initiative could go some way towards engendering public trust and confidence in the police. There is a statutory requirement for the MPS to carryout a full Race Equality Impact Assessments on the implementation of Recommendation 61 so that it can take steps to minimise the potential for adverse impact on young, Black males if the same levels of disproportionality that is apparent for Stop and Search, is not to be continued for Stops.

D. Financial implications

All expenditure will be contained within the established budget.

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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