Hackney launch of Recommendation 61 - recording all police stops

23/03
31 March 2003

Recommendation 61 of the independent Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report will be launched by the Metropolitan Police Authority, the Metropolitan Police Service and Hackney Borough Council on Monday 31 March 2003 at 10.30am at Ocean 2, Mare Street, Hackney. Toby Harris, Chair of the MPA, Commander Bob Broadhurst, Metropolitan Police Service and Councillor Julius Nkafu, Cabinet member for community safety and crime of the London Borough of Hackney, will lead the event.

Recommendation 61 means that all police stops will be recorded by officers and a record of the stop given to the individual. At present only stops and searches are recorded.

Toby Harris, Chair of the MPA, said:

“Police stops are one of the most contentious policing issues for London’s black and ethnic minority communities. The use of police stops affects members of these communities disproportionately. It creates a perception of unfairness that threatens the acknowledged effectiveness of stops as a policing tool and damages trust and confidence in the police.

“Recommendation 61 will address important issues raised by the use of this emotive police power – such as accurate recording and monitoring, ethnic classification of suspects, and intelligence-led versus random use of the powers.

“The MPA welcomes the implementation of Rec 61 in Hackney, although we did urge the Home Office to introduce a pilot for the whole of London and test technological solutions to prevent unnecessary extra paperwork. This would have sent out a powerful message to our black and Asian communities that we had listened to their concerns and were prepared to test the effectiveness of Recommendation 61 very urgently across all of London.

“Although we are pleased to see the recording of stops finally underway in Hackney, we remain concerned that there will be two different regimes in place in London. This has the potential to cause confusion and misunderstanding.

“We need to ensure that police use of this very important tool is fair and transparent. It is in everyone’s interests - police and public alike - to be clear about what happens when a police officer stops a person in the street.“

The Metropolitan Police Service is one of seven police services chosen for the initial phase of implementing Recommendation 61 starting on 1 April 2003. Hackney will be the first London borough to record all stops using a paper-based method on a new stop recording form designed by the Met. This form is more detailed than the existing stop & search form and the MPA will be monitoring how it is received by the community in Hackney.

Commander Bob Broadhurst said:

“Recommendation 61 aims to reinforce confidence in how police deal with London’s communities. From the public’s point of view it provides a more accountable police service and shows that we are prepared to deal with issues such as fairness and disproportionality.”

Chief Superintendent Derek Benson, borough commander for Hackney, said:

"I believe the introduction of Recommendation 61 will further enhance the already excellent relationships that exist between the police and Hackney's many diverse communities. It offers an opportunity for Hackney to be at the forefront of this community-driven initiative."

The Metropolitan Police Authority discussed with the Home Office initiating a London-wide implementation because the capital is unique in terms of its diversity and complexities. This was not accepted but in response the Authority has made the decision to instigate a second borough implementation using a technology-based system. This is likely to begin by September 2003, but details of which borough are yet to be finalised. The implementation of Rec 61 in London will take place in 5 phases:

• Phase 1 Paper-based implementation in Hackney on 1 April 2003;
• Phase 2 Implementation and phased evaluation, time scale 3-6 months;
• Phase 3 IT-based implementation, estimated start date September 2003;
• Phase 4 Implementation monitoring and evaluation; and
• Phase 5 Recommended approaches to be approved by the Home Secretary.

The Authority is working to ensure that Recommendation 61 is implemented across the whole of London by Autumn 2004.

Notes to editors

1. Rec 61 Implementation

The seven areas chosen for the initial implementation are testing different methods of recording police stops, either paper-based or utilising new technology, which the Home Office will evaluate in order to choose the most suitable methods for national implementation.

Phased implementation of Rec 61 will enable the Home Office and the police to identify the most effective approaches to recording stops and ways of working that will cause the least inconvenience to the public, develop practices that will encourage public trust and confidence and are 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.

2. Official definition of a stop

A police stop is defined by the Home Office as “when an officer requests 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.”

3. MPA to scrutinise MPS performance and practice in stop and search

The Authority has agreed to conduct a scrutiny into the Metropolitan Police Service’s performance and practice in using stop and search across the capital.

On 24 January 203 the Authority's Co-ordination and Policing Committee agreed the scrutiny’s remit and approved a timeframe of six months, beginning in February.

The scrutiny was initiated and will be overseen by the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board (EODB), the MPA committee responsible for matters relating to equal opportunity and diversity issues, and will concentrate on four key aspects of stop and search that previous studies have not explored. These are:

• Disproportionality and profiling - a critical review of disproportionality in stop and search, seeking answers to difficult questions such as whether the consistently high levels of disproportionality in the MPS stop and search data are linked to the possible use of profiling of black and minority ethnic people within the MPS;
• Use of stop and search data and policing intelligence - a critical look at the use that is made of the current stop and search data to inform police intelligence on key policing initiatives such as street crime, burglary, drug crime and others;
• Cost effectiveness of stop and search - an investigation of the cost-effectiveness of stop search in financial terms (as an activity) and the cost to public confidence, considering whether the cost effectiveness of stop and search is equal to the value that it contributes to policing by consent; and

Public engagement and information - identifying good practice models within the MPS. Some boroughs, such as Lambeth and Westminster, already use stop and search data to engage and inform local community organisations and groups, effectively utilising the data as a means of engendering trust and developing confidence in policing performance.

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