Metropolitan Police Authority welcomes Home Office ‘Stop and Search – Know Your Rights Pass It On’ campaign

28/06
11 May 2006

The Home Office ‘Stop and Search - Know Your Rights Pass It On ’ campaign is launched regionally on Thursday 11 May. It aims to inform young people in black and ethnic minority communities about stop and search as a police tactic, what their rights are when they are stopped and how they can complain if they feel they have been mistreated.

John Roberts, Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) lead member on stop and search, said:

“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.

“Stop and search can be a very valuable police tool to help detect and prevent crime and to keep everybody safe. But it is important to ensure that it is carried out in a professional and respectful manner, in order for it to have positive impact on all our communities.

“Police stops are one of the most contentious policing issues for many of London’s black and minority ethnic communities and can damage trust and confidence in the police. Since we launched Recommendation 61 (recording all police stops) and the MPA Know Your Rights campaign in November 2004, we have worked hard with the MPS to make stops more accountable and to deal with such issues as fairness and disproportionality, thereby helping to improve police-community relations.”

Work undertaken by the MPA includes:

• MPA scrutiny of MPS stop and search practice, which made 55 recommendations on how practice could be improved. A progress report ‘One year on’ ensured that all recommendations are being progressed;
• supporting the development of local stop and search monitoring groups in each of the 32 boroughs through a Community Network and helping communities work with police to understand the importance of stop and search as an effective policing tool; and
• incorporating into police training an understanding of the impact stop and search can have on communities.

Notes to editors

1. Full details of the MPA Stop and Search Scrutiny can be found at www.mpa.gov.uk/issues/stop-search/default.htm

2. Recommendation 61 - recording police stops

Recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report called for the police to record all stops as well as searches. The Home Office implemented seven pilot sites for Recommendation 61 across the country in phases beginning in April 2003. The Metropolitan Police Service was one of seven police services chosen for the initial phase of implementation.

The aim of the pilot sites was to evaluate the most effective way of recording stops. The seven areas chosen for the initial implementation tested different methods of recording police stops, either paper-based or utilising new technology, which the Home Office evaluated in order to choose the most suitable methods for national implementation in April 2005.

Implementation in London

Pilot site implementation in London began in the borough of Hackney on 1 April 2003 using a paper-based recording method. The Metropolitan Police Authority discussed with the Home Office initiating a London-wide implementation because we believe the capital is unique in terms of its diversity and complexities. This was not accepted but in response the Authority made the decision to instigate a second borough implementation using a technology-based system. This began in Tower Hamlets in December 2003.

Recording police stops

New police stop recording forms were designed by the MPS and were trialled in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, as well as a technology-based system. The form is more detailed than the MPS stop & search form and it was monitored by the MPA to gauge how it was received by the communities in Hackney and Tower Hamlets.

Phased implementation of Recommendation 61 enabled the Home Office and the police to identify the most effective approaches to recording stops and ways of working that 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 Authority worked to ensure that Recommendation 61 was implemented across the whole of London, with a phased roll out, from 1 October 2004.

3. Legislative background for Stop and Search practice

Statutory Search Powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE)
The general power for police to stop people, vehicles and vessels, comes from the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Both the powers to Stop and Search under PACE and those authorised by most other statutes must be carried out in accordance with the Code A of the Codes of Practice.
S.60 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (CJPO)

This power gives a constable in uniform the right to stop and search any person or vehicle, within a particular area, during a specific period of time, to prevent serious violence and the carrying of weapons and also provides the power to request removal of face coverings.

S.44 Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT)

This power gives a constable in uniform the right to stop and search any person or vehicle, if they have articles of a kind which could be used in connection with terrorism, authorised by a chief officer and applied within a particular area for a specific period of time.

Under both Section 60 CJPO and Section 44 TACT, police do not require the ‘reasonable grounds’ to make stops and searches, which are always required for the general power to stop and search people under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984.

4. 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."

Further media information

For further information, please contact the MPA press office

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