Metropolitan Police Authority - Acting Commissioner to give evidence to Stop and Search Scrutiny Panel

05/04
28 January 2004

An extraordinary meeting of the MPA Stop and Search Scrutiny panel will be hearing additional evidence from the Acting Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, on Thursday 29 January 2004 at 10 Dean Farrar Street SW1, starting at 2.00pm.

This meeting of the Stop and Search Scrutiny Panel is open to members of the public and press.

The panel will discuss the statutory authority for stop and search. Evidence given to the panel previously, from officers of all ranks, indicates that in some cases discretionary stop and search powers are used outside the existing statutory authority.

Cecile Wright, Chair of the panel, said:

"Historically, stop and search has resulted in distrust and levels of disengagement by those Londoners who are repeatedly stopped and searched. Although figures suggest a decrease in criminal activities the MPS' figures still show black Londoners are four times more likely to be stopped than white Londoners.

"This is of concern to the MPA as the way in which the police use stop and search is crucial to community relations and it impacts on the ability of the MPS to recruit black and ethnic minority people into the police service.”

Subjects to be looked at include the increase in stop and search and disproportionality. The greatest impact of increases in stop and search falls on black and minority ethnic people. This in turn risks a large proportion of Londoners losing confidence in the police and the panel will consider ways in which that trust can be regained.

The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report recommended that officers should be more accountable when using stop and search and that supervision and analysis of this power is essential. Evidence heard by the panel however has raised concerns about discretionary decisions by officers, the lack of close supervision and insufficiently detailed analysis of figures. The Acting Commissioner will be asked what is being be done to address these shortcomings.

During the course of the scrutiny, it has been suggested that stop and search creates racial tension, hampers community relations and is not always effective as a police tool to fight crime. The panel will consider the case for stop and search to be suspended and whether there are other, more effective, policing methods that can be deployed to detect and deter crime.

Background

In January 2003, the MPA's Co-ordination and Policing Committee agreed to conduct a scrutiny into the MPS's performance and practice in using stop and search across the capital.
The scrutiny will be overseen by the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board, the MPA committee responsible for matters relating to equal opportunity and diversity issues, and will concentrate on five key aspects of stop and search that previous studies have not explored. These are:

• Disproportionality and profiling;
• Use of stop and search data and policing intelligence;
• Cost effectiveness of stop and search;
• Public engagement and information; and
• Determine whether there exists different levels of criminality within different sectors of the population.

Cecile Wright, Chair of the Panel, said:

"Detailed investigation of the five areas to be addressed by the Scrutiny Panel will contribute significantly to addressing longstanding and unresolved issues surrounding police practice and use of stop and search."

Full details of the scrutiny and terms of reference are available on the MPA website.

Notes to editors

Full details of the scrutiny and terms of reference are available on the MPA website.

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