Minutes:
Police asked to attend the forum meeting to discuss Stop and Search after sitting in on the forum’s Hate Crime workshop at the Youth Summit.
· In Northamptonshire you are 3 x more likely to be stop searched if you are black. This is lower than national average but still disproportionate.
· 75% of stop searches result in no further action
· A section 60 can be used to give officer the right to stop and search anyone without giving a reason in extreme circumstances. For instance, in the event of a knife attack where the weapon/person has not been recovered. This gives police more powers to find that person quickly and protect the public.
· A Community Scrutiny Panel exists to review body worn footage and give police feedback on stop search interactions.
A safe and legal stop search should follow this process. The Officer;
· must explain why they have stopped you
· must be polite and respectful
· should offer you a record of the search
PB explained that whilst stop searches in Northamptonshire are compliant with the above, the biggest challenge is around the style and tone of the interactions and Northants Police are keen to do this better and need public feedback.
Questions and comments:
·
Education around stop search should be improved.
Many young people are scared to be stopped by Police and
don’t know the purpose and value of this.
PB – Often difficult to get into schools but will look at how
this can be included better in knife crime inputs in secondary
schools.
· “Not been stopped/searched myself but would feel like a personal attack on my character, like why am I suspicious to you?”
·
Do you think the media influences people’s
perceptions of Police and fuels fear about what might happen if you
are stopped? Particularly in relation to Police brutality in
America?
PB – Absolutely has an impact, and not just America –
there have been incidents with Police in the UK. Majority of police
officers are there for the right reason, to do a good job and
protect people but there are always bad apples in any
area.
· Language, tone and style discussed. PB gave an example picked up recently of some younger police officers using the word ‘mate’ which can be interpreted as rude and disrespectful by some people and leads to a bad interaction.
·
Are the Police trying to be colour blind in their
approach?
PB – No, but important to understand biases and possible
prejudice and train officers in this – example given that
Somali men will not make eye contact out of fear/respect when
stopped but this can be misinterpreted as being
‘shifty’ or having something to hide.
·
What are you doing to diversify the Police
workforce? With a greater diversity of police it will be easier to communicate with
different communities.
PB/EN – The Positive action team is made up of 3 staff whose
job it is to promote recruitment opportunities to communities not
widely represented in the police.
· Suggested there could be an element of stubbornness, both on community and police’s part around stop search? The community in terms of not wanting to understand/accept that it has a role to play, and the police overstating its role in policing.
·
Would be useful to understand what is working in the
25%, successful stop searches, and look to apply this
further.
EN offered a scenario to the forum;
You are an officer on the beat and get a call over the radio about a robbery at knife point a few minutes ago in the town centre near where you are. The description is quite generic, a white male, in his 40’s with brown hair and a beard. Someone who could fit that description is walking towards you, not far from where the call came in. There is nothing else to suggest they are a threat…. Do you stop them?
Forum agreed that whilst only 25% of the time the search will be accurate (based on current data) and result in further action this was worth it compared to the risk against the community.
Actions:
·
Aimee to share information on how to join the
Community scrutiny panel for anyone interested.
·
Forum to share any further feedback around Police
language, style and tone that would make them feel more at ease
during stop/search.
· Morcea to share information on the Race Action Plan meeting on 15 December; Aimee to circulate to forum – completed.