Let's get it right: race and justice 2000 - Nacro

Let’s get it rightanother new avenue to extend consultation. Home Officeguidance on the Act stresses the need to consult ‘hard toreach’ groups, and to ensure that minority communitiesare consulted. There is thus a high level of commitment toconsultation at government level.It is essential that this commitment is also shown at locallevels. The new channels must be used flexibly andimaginatively, to ensure a wide participation of peoplefrom all parts of the community and of all ages. Theymust also involve real consultation – a two-way process –and not be restricted to giving information.Policing local communities‘I get stopped so regularly that I wonderif I should leave my house sometimes.’Young black man, Tottenham, London, 1996 –from ‘Policing Local Communities’, NACRO 1997It is at the level of first line contact – on the street and inlocal police stations – where most conflict between policeand minority communities has arisen. Since the Scarmanreport, great efforts have been made by ACPO and seniorofficers to improve police and community relations at thisfundamental level. Have these efforts been successful?The 1984, Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE)introduced new police powers in relation to stop andsearch to replace the older set of powers – often called‘sus’ – which had created such conflict with localcommunities. The Act included safeguards to ensureresponsible use by officers of what is a very powerful,intrusive and frightening procedure – to be searched inpublic. PACE requires that police officers must havereasonable grounds for suspecting that stolen orprohibited articles will be found. According to the PACECodes of Practice:‘Reasonable suspicion can never be supported onthe basis of personal factors alone. For example, aperson’s colour, age, hairstyle or manner of dress… cannot be used alone or in combination witheach other as the sole basis on which to search thatperson. Nor may it be founded on the basis ofstereotyped images of certain persons or groups asmore likely to be committing offences.’In 1994 HM Inspectorate of Constabulary introducedethnic monitoring of searches as a performance indicator.Results of monitoring for 1995 were published in Hansardas a result of a question from Bernie Grant MP. Theysuggested that nationally, 22% of those searched were‘ethnic minority persons’ compared to just under 6% inthe general population. From 1995, monitoring of stopand searches, arrests, cautions and homicides wasintroduced under s95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991.Two further years’ results – in the 1998 Home Officereport on s95 – show the same pattern.Although monitoring figures alone cannot tell the fullstory, it is a serious concern – which is acknowledged bymany senior officers – that the figures so far show thatmembers of minority groups are four to five times morelikely than whites to be stopped and searched.The Metropolitan Police carry out the highest number ofstop and searches of all forces – in 1997/98 about onethirdof all PACE searches took place in London. Sixteenyears ago, a Policy Studies Institute (PSI) report on howthe previous police powers were being used in Londonfound that ‘the proportion of all adults who have beenstopped in a vehicle in the past 12 months is 14%; theproportion of young West Indians who own or have theuse of a vehicle who have been stopped in a vehicle is49%’. Young African Caribbeans were more likely to bestopped and searched than whites, and to be subject tomultiple stops. In the 15-24 age group, 63% of AfricanCaribbean men, 44% of white men and 18% of Asianshad been stopped.This 1983 study identified a ‘strike rate’ – the proportionof stops leading to the detection of an offence – as one inevery 12 stops. This result was the same for each ethnicgroup. It also noted that the great majority of both blackand white people stopped had not committed an offence;and that ‘the cost of the present policy, in terms of therelationship between the police and certain sections of thepublic is shown to be substantial, and most stops arewasted effort’.The PSI survey included interviews with members of thepublic and police officers. One of its conclusions was that‘there is a dangerous lack of confidence in the policeamong substantial numbers of young white people and adisastrous lack of confidence among young people ofWest Indian origin’.In 1997/98, s95 monitoring shows that 40% of peoplestopped and searched by the MPS were from minority30