Stop Watch

StopWatch recently responded to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMIC) consultation on their framework and plan for 2012/13. You can read the full text of our response here.

Throughout the month of May StopWatch is supporting a new play that addresses the impact of excessive stop and search on young people and the police. Stop Search is playing at the BroadWay Theatre Catford. On the 15th and 17th of May StopWatch will be hosting panel debates following the performance with cast members, police officers, politicians and young people.

On December 14 2011 the Home Secretary Theresa May announced that the Association of Chief Police Officers would be leading an inquiry into stop and search practice. Since that time details on the terms of reference or even the timeline of the inquiry have not been forthcoming. StopWatch recently wrote to the Home Secretary seeking clarity on these issues. We feel that it is vital that any inquiry be full and robust in order to avoid another wasted opportunity to make serious improvements to the policing of marginal communities.

StopWatch legal group members Katherine Craig and Sarah McSherry write in the Guardian (Tuesday 17 January 2012) about the need for Stop and Search reform to go beyond arrest rates.

StopWatch welcome the decision by the new commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe to reduce the use of Stop and Search in the Capital and reform the use of section 60.

A short film giving young people the chance to speak honestly about stop and search.

Members of the StopWatch youth group made this video because they felt that debates about stop and search did not reflect their reality.

The Metropolitan Police Authority recently announced that they will continue to record the use of stop and account despite it ceasing to be a statutory requirement. StopWatch have produced a press release welcoming the news.

StopWatch have submitted two responses to the Home Affairs Committee's inquiry into the policing of large-scale public disorder.

The United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has accepted all the concerns that StopWatch put to it regarding the use of stop and search in the UK and called for the government to take action to address them.

David Anderson QC recently indicated that he had mixed feelings around the use of Schedule 7 powers in ports and airports.

Recently members of StopWatch youth and policy groups attended the AGM of the All Party Group on Race and Community. Read a blog about the event by Jane Basham Chief Executive of Ipswich and Suffolk Council for Race Equality.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights Published its report into the 2001 Terrorism Act last week.

The Equality & Human Rights Commission published a report on Monday 6^th June 2011 reviewing the impact CT measures are having on Muslim Communities. This included a section dedicated solely to Schedule 7, making it the first known report that actually investigates the use of Schedule 7.

Research carried out by FOSIS indicates that Asian people are 42 times more likely to be stopped at ports and airports under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

StopWatch members recently participated in a consultation event hosted by the Metropolitan Police around recording of stop and account.

Controversial changes to stop and search powers were passed in parliament on 2 February, despite campaigns from race equality and human rights organisations, including StopWatch.

For a summary of the main points raised in the debate, see the Runnymede Westminster Monitor blog.

As parliament debates the PACE Code A review, StopWatch challenge policing minister Nick Herbert MP on numbers - his claims on stop and search paperwork don’t add up.

Writing for the Guardian's Comment is free section, Michael Shiner and Rebekah Delsol point out that proposed reductions in stop and search monitoring will lead to: "enormous costs in terms of lost public trust in the police."

Read the full Guardian article here.

Following the debate regarding the proposed amendments of PACE and later the decision to drop the new provision StopWatch has written a letter to Nick Herbert, MP. StopWatch welcomes the decision to drop the proposed changes which allowed officers to use race to select people to search under section 60 and strengthened the wording noting the applicability of search decisions to the Equalities Act 2010. Yet, there remains a concern that there has not been a full transparent public consultation process which has forced StopWatch to react.

It recently came out in an article by the Guardian that the police have asked the government for a new counter-terrorism power to stop and search people without reasonable suspicion. This has raised a concern amongst member of StopWatch.

On Monday, 17 January 2011, the All Party Parliamentary on Race and Community will host a parliamentary Q&A session with the Policing Minister Nick Herbert.

On 1 December 2010, Richard Fuller MP tabled a Westminster Hall debate on stop and search, raising a number of StopWatch concerns. The debate focused on the changes being made to the PACE code of practice A. Nick Herbert MP, Minister of State for Police, provided some answers.

StopWatch submitted a response to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Code of Practice A. In our response, we highlight our concerns about how the proposals represent a significant change to the operation of stop and search; they have the potential to increase disproportionate targeting of ethnic minority communities, and further damage the relationship between these communities and the police.

StopWatch was launched Monday 18 October, 2010 at King's College London where key speaker Reverend Jesse Jackson called for an end to "racial profiling" on both sides of the Atlantic.

Liberty has warned the Government against draft police guidance that would allow race to be a basis for stop and search without suspicion under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

StopWatch submitted a response to the government consultation document Policing in the 21st Century: Reconnecting the Police and the People. Our response highlights a number of concerns in the proposals which the Home Secretary hails as "the most radical change to policing in 50 years".