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Police stop and search of a young man.
HMIC has promised a new inquiry into the use of stop and search. Photograph: David Parry/PA Wire
HMIC has promised a new inquiry into the use of stop and search. Photograph: David Parry/PA Wire

Stop and search still targets black people, police watchdog says

This article is more than 7 years old

Over half of worst offending police forces are still not obeying new rules to stop abuse of their powers, says Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary

Police stops of black people are still at an “eye-watering” level compared with white people, the official police watchdog said today and promised a fresh inquiry into every force’s use of the controversial powers.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, which oversees the police in England and Wales, said that stop and search was still of concern as it published a report into 13 police forces found previously to have been the worst offenders in breaking rules designed to prevent abuse of their powers.

It came as the Metropolitan police in London faced controversy over a video showing a stop of a black male while pushing a scooter. The video gained traction on social media and then the mainstream media as it is alleged the stop was carried out by the same police officer seen in video footage that emerged over the weekend, attacking the car windscreen of a motorist.

The reaction to the video highlights the continuing sensitivity of stop and search and official findings that police were abusing their powers and overly targeting black people, known as disproportionality. Such was the concern that Theresa May while home secretary was considering legislation to stamp out stop and search abuses, which have shredded trust between police forces and sections of the communities they serve.

The report from HMIC came after its inspection in February found that 32 out of 43 forces failed to meet government rules aimed at stamping out abuses.

The new HMIC report looked at the 13 forces that were the worst offenders in obeying a scheme they had voluntarily signed up for. HMIC found when it started its inspection this summer, four months after the forces had been publicly shamed and condemned by the home secretary, seven were still breaking the rules.

It took them two further months and the threat of another public shaming, for them to finally do what they had promised to do. Those forces were Cumbria, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, South Wales and Wiltshire.

Despite government pressure, black people are still four times more likely than white people to face a stop, most of which result in no detection of criminality.

Mike Cunningham, a former chief constable who led the inspection for HMIC, told the Guardian: “The figures for disproportionality are still pretty eye-watering.”

Cunningham said: “The big issue with stop and search, the issue of disproportionality, it has been around for many years. We are not saying that nothing has been done, but it is still a significant issue.”

He said police leaders need to find out why disproportionality is happening in their areas: “Chief constables need to understand the issues in their areas much better.”

Cunningham said 19 forces, including the Met and West Midlands forces, would face an extra inspection of their use of stop and search later this year, with every force in England and Wales being inspected by 2017 on their use of the powers.

HMIC had found in February that the 13 worst offenders were Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cumbria, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northumbria, South Wales, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia and Wiltshire.

The then home secretary reacted to the finding by HMIC by suspending them from membership of the best use of stop and search scheme. Today, after HMIC found they were finally obeying the rules, they were reinstated.

Police leaders reacted by stressing the crime-fighting benefits of stop and search, the use of which has declined dramatically in recent years.

Alex Duncan, chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales’s professional standards committee, said: “When it is properly used, stop and search is an essential tool for operational policing as it disrupts and detects criminal activity, such as knife crime and the proliferation of class A drugs. Criminals should be on the back foot and worried that they could be stopped, searched and arrested, otherwise they will act with impunity.”

More on this story

More on this story

  • Amber Rudd backs Met police chief on use of stop and search

  • Met police chief says more stop and search may help reduce knife crime

  • Stop and search: police 'unacceptably slow' to comply with new rules

  • Police officers must be aware of biases, says training college

  • Mass stop and search by police doesn't reduce crime, says study

  • UK police forces 'still abusing stop and search powers'

  • The racial gap in recruitment for every police force in the UK

  • Supreme court affirms random stop-and-search

  • Stop and search: the police must not revive this discredited tactic

  • Police Scotland faces clampdown on stop and search

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