December 2024: All we want for Xmas is for the police to stop harassing children
Doesn't matter if the police have been good or not this year, 'cos they'll get a present in the form of a 3% real terms increase in funding
Dear StopWatchers,
Welcome to the last roundup of policing news for 2024. No sign of the police winding down for the festive season though, as our stockings are ram-packed with as much police misconduct as any other month:
♫ On the last day of Christmas the police gave to us: 17 ANPR roll-outs, 13 city police raids for illegal streaming, £10k spent on automated AI in Durham, 4 forces in special measures, 3 police inspections, 2 officers jailed, and a fatal police shooting of a dog. ♫
This month’s newsletter takes a look at the watchdog investigation into Child X and how the officers’ actions mirrors the broader findings of the Home Office’s police use of force data set.
In StopWatch’s humble abode, we released our Serious Violence Reduction Orders: The impression of doing something joint report with the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. Reported in The Independent (12 Dec), we argue that the roll out of a government pilot scheme to tackle knife crime has been shrouded in unjustified secrecy. From Home Office data, we have gleaned that 66 searches took place in the first year of the pilot – the majority of which were in Merseyside alone – none of which led to the discovery of weapons. Unfortunately, the same government department has refused to disclose how many people have been searched under the SVRO power, a sign of how access to information about the use of the orders is restricted.
We also attended the ‘Inclusive Futures for Responsible AI’ Conference in Birmingham, where we participated in discussions over the rollout of newly automated technologies from a policing perspective, and checked in with our friends in the Stop Facial Recognition Coalition, the working group campaigning against the rollback of safeguards in the Data (Use and Access) bill (sign the petition demanding a human review of automated decisions over life changing decisions), and Islington Copwatch.
All we want for Xmas is for the police to stop harassing children
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation into the case of Child X finally concluded this month, with the watchdog determining that the actions of the officers involved were ‘reasonable in the circumstances’ and that there is ‘no indication’ justifying ‘disciplinary proceedings’ (BBC, 13 Dec). In their humble opinion, racial discrimination did not influence the officer’s report on that day.
To recap: on 19 July 2023, a 13-year-old Black boy (Child X), was playing with water pistols with his younger sister in Hackney. These water guns were unmistakably toys: they were brightly coloured, one bright white and blue, the other bright white and pink. Yet, a duty officer reported this as a Black male pointing a firearm at a female before the pair cycled off.
Spurred into action by this fallacious report, the Met got together an armed response team. When they saw Child X, the team made ‘tactical contact’ with Child X, meaning they proceeded to hit him with their police vehicle, ramming the child off his bike (BBC, Oct 2023). They then surrounded Child X, pointing their firearms at him and handcuffing the child before arresting him on suspicion of possession of a firearm. The officers involved handled Child X with such force that he was later taken to hospital to receive treatment for his bruising. Lo and behold, no gun was found.
If that encounter with the police wasn’t traumatising enough, the force continued to harass the family. On 29 May 2024, equipped with a search warrant, officers came to Child X’s home to take his phone on the grounds that he was the suspect of a ‘a life-threatening arson’ crime (Independent, 22 Aug). The detective chief overseeing the case, superintendent James Conway, insisted that there was ‘no connection’ between this police visit and the officers’ mistreatment of Child X in the summer of 2023.
The representatives of Child X’s mother, Bhatt Murphy, issued a statement in response to the IOPC’s ruling, stating that the watchdog had failed the family (Bhatt Murphy on Twitter, 13 Dec). They noted that the IOPC refused to take responsibility for any investigation of the matter on two separate occasions, before doing so three months later on 20 October 2023, after national press coverage of the incident finally compelled them to act. At the time of the legal firm’s statement, a copy of the IOPC's investigation report has not been provided to the family, so they have not had access to underlying information considered by the watchdog when coming to their decision.
Refusing to ignore the looming elephant in the room at the time, Child X’s mother affirmed that:
I know – and the police know – that they would not have treated my son in the way they did if he had been a white 13-year-old boy.
- BBC (Oct 2023)
The evidence from the Home Office’s annual police use of force dataset suggests this (05 Dec). In the year ending 31 March 2024, police forces in England and Wales submitted 747,396 use of force reports (+13% on the year prior), with Black people subjected to force 3.2 times more often compared with white people (StopWatch, 12 Dec). Zooming in just on the Met, this ethnic disparity edged closer to 4 : 1 (x3.7).
It only gets even more repugnant the closer you look at the details. Despite representing only 4% of the population, people from a Black ethnic group were involved in 15% of incidents involving police use of so-called ‘less lethal’ weapons and 20% of incidents involving police use of firearms.
On those less lethal weapons (of which the TASER® is the most infamous type), the police targeted Black people 4.1 times more often than white people, discharging of them 3.5 times more frequently. Once again, the Met is gunning for first place by opting to TASER Black people 4.1 times more often than white people. None of this covers the 27,000 use of force reports where ethnicity was not reported. In 30% of those incidents, the person subjected to force wasn’t even arrested.
Children do not escape the police’s wrath either. In the year ending 31 March 2024, the police used force against children on 85,148 occasions, 885 of which were directed at those under the age of 11. Handcuffs, dogs, TASER devices, and firearms were all deployed more often on children than on adults aged 50 years and over (see table 2 of the dataset). And Child X was one of those instances.
With this in mind, it is perhaps unsurprising that teenagers themselves have significant doubts about stop and search. The findings from a survey of 10,000 children aged 13 to 17 years of age published by government-backed charity Youth Endowment Fund (09 Dec) revealed that although approximately two thirds of teenagers (68%) support stop and search – anyone can be in favour of an abstract principle – fewer than half of them felt that the police treated everyone fairly when they did so (specifically 39% of Black teenagers compared with 47% of white teenagers), and barely half (54%) of them believe the police do a good job in their local area.
It is important to remember that the inhumane treatment of Child X is not a one-off, and that every display of force towards a child that makes the news does more to damage public perceptions of the police than the typical experiences of encounters with officers. It is obvious that the tacit acceptance of increased police involvement in children’s lives will continue to produce more instances of police violence towards children.
Which is what makes the police regulatory body’s decision over the Child X incident all the more worrying. Families across the country could be forgiven for thinking that their child runs the risk of suffering a violent beating from the police at any time, whether deliberate or mistaken, with no recourse for justice. Sadly, this is what ‘child centred policing’ looks like, whatever police strategy documents would like us to think, and why the concept is ultimately a flawed one.
Deaths from police contact, cases old and new
Cristopher De Carvalho Guedes
Constable Ian Brotherton has been charged with causing death by dangerous, careless, and inconsiderate driving following a crash that resulted in the death of 26-year-old moped rider Cristopher De Carvalho Guedes. The incident occurred when the officer drove through a red light, leading to the fatal collision (The National, 02 Dec).
Unnamed
An 18-year-old has died in a crash following a police chase after officers responded to reports of a car theft. The vehicle collided with another car before stopping. A man in his twenties and a 17-year-old boy were arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and aggravated vehicle taking. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating the incident (The Mirror, 04 Dec).
Sali Byberi
Sali died in 2022. During the inquest into his death, officer ‘G1’ said that he and his colleague officer ‘R7’ wanted to keep Sali and his partner apart as they arrived at their flat following reports of a disturbance. According to this account, Sali repeatedly said ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’ and became agitated when R7 wanted to see Sali’s partner’s phone. When Sali left the flat to speak to his partners, the officers continued to try to separate them and Sali allegedly gave G1 a ‘significant’ push, which G1 responded to by deploying his TASER and saying ‘armed police with a taser get down’.
Sali then, in this account, ran back into his flat and tried to close the door on them. G1 tried to prevent the door closing and R7 Tasered Sali. Because Sali ‘got back up’ and allegedly was involved in an altercation with G1, R7 discharged her device a second time. Additional officers then arrived and restrained Sali before he died (Essex Live, 05 Dec).
Other news
Disability Advocacy Group concerned about Peterborough police force: Speak Out Peterborough stressed the need for clear communication and greater understanding of disabilities, questioning the suitability of police officers for welfare checks. They also raised concerns about the impact of stop and search procedures on people with learning disabilities and autism, urging more sensitive approaches (Peterborough Matters, 01 Dec).
Hertfordshire stop and search scrutiny panel: The panel examined 36 records, and rated them according to a confidence score with five rated as amber for not confident and two as red meaning they had serious concerns (The Comet, 02 Dec).
Durham Police spent £10K on automated AI: the AI service was invested in to establish an automated system for domestic violence cases under Clare’s Law (Emergency Services Times, 02 Dec).
Child banned from Barrow town centre for hanging out with more than two kids: A teenager in Barrow has been issued an Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction, barring them from the town centre, several parks, and retail areas, as well as prohibiting the child from being in groups of more than two under-18s in public and from using insulting or harassing language (Cumbria Crack, 03 Dec).
Gwent Police to use facial recognition technology to target shoplifting: The initiative includes using CCTV footage from businesses and retrospective facial recognition to identify offenders, supported by covert tactics to enhance security (South Wales Argus, 03 Dec).
Racism in police is systemic, says former senior officer: Responding to West Midlands police’s severe repercussions towards whistleblowers for speaking out against a ‘toxic culture’, former Met police assistant commissioner Neil Basu criticised police leadership for denying institutional racism and urged action through cautious recruitment, training, and promotions (Channel 4, 04 Dec).
VRU boss grilled at GLA committee: Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) director Lib Peck told assembly members the VRU budget is £36.7 million for the next year, with £3.3 million expenditure put towards on localised interventions across 15 boroughs. She said that 90% of young people don’t reoffend if taken to a youth worker and that ‘[Of course] we need more police officers and of course enforcement is part of the problem but we’re not going to enforce our way out of violence unless we take prevention seriously’.
Will Balakrishnan, director of commissioning and partnerships at MOPAC, could not confirm to the panel when the police and crime plan will be released. Victim support is an ‘opt-in’ mechanism. Will recognised a notable reduction in trust in the police and criminal justice system among victims of crime, with high rates of victim attrition partly owing to the victims who are reticent to seek support. The panel criticised Will for the neglect of outer boroughs relative to inner-city boroughs.
The London Met Crime Prevention Fund is £13 million per year. 5 out of 80 of MOPAC’s KPIs have received a red rating, but only 2 of those have been publicised. Susan Hall AM accused this of being a case of cherry picking and when she requested to see all 5 red ratings, Will evaded the question saying ‘I’ll get back to you on that’. MOPAC’s commissioning budget is £90 million for this year. No services have been decommissioned.
Emma Best AM expressed concerns about the six-figure salaries of MOPAC members of staff given the dissatisfactory results of the value for money of the Met’s crime prevention plan (Greater London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, 04 Dec).
Police Federation doesn't want stop and search targets: Chair of Cleveland Police Federation Paul Crowley says that the government’s Police Performance Unit must not mean a return to data-driven performance indicators. He specifically pushes back on stop and search targets (Police Federation, 05 Dec). Paul said:
We don’t want to see a return to the days where everything was data driven, because what we ended up with – and what we will end up with again if we go down that road – are performance indicators. The human element of policing gets removed entirely from the equation. We saw officers being presented with stop-and-search targets, for instance, and we don’t want that again. Policing is a unique job, and certain elements of it need to be recognised and understood. Performance indicators lead to demoralised officers, and police forces that are functioning under the false pretence of good work, at the expense of not only the organisation but also the community.
Sal Naseem on the ‘toxic racist Met incapable of reform’: The former regional director for London at the IOPC insisted the Met needed urgent structural reform, saying:
History shows us [that] the Metropolitan police service is incapable of the sort of reform that it always says that it will do after the latest tragedy or after the latest scandal that hits it. You had the Baroness Casey review, which showed that, nearly a quarter of a century on from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, the Metropolitan police has actually got worse. No longer is it only institutionally racist, it’s now also recognised as being institutionally homophobic and institutionally misogynistic.
Naseem’s views were echoed by Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association. Both have called for deeper reforms to address these systemic issues (Eastern Eye, 05 Dec).
South Yorkshire police fatal shooting of dog: Police have addressed online speculation after shooting a dog that was off-leash. They stated the action followed reports of a dog walker being intimidated and a woman being bitten, the latter of which has still has not been identified by the police. Two different dogs were seized and are being held in police kennels (ITV News, 09 Dec).
Ex-West Mercia officer jailed for abusing power in relationship with suspect: Nicholas Peacock was jailed for 18 months after admitting to abusing his position by engaging in a sexual relationship with a suspect in an assault case he was investigating. Peacock failed to fully investigate the crime, falsely claiming there were no witnesses and that the victim did not support prosecution. Initially sentenced to 27 months, his term was reduced due to a guilty plea (Birmingham Live, 10 Dec).
Activist arrests in UK ‘three times global average’: 17% of climate and environmental are apprehended by police. This proportion is much higher than the international average of 6.3% (The Ecologist, 12 Dec).
Dispersal orders: On 2 December the powers were in place in Bolton (Manchester Evening News, 03 Dec); on 12-13 December, in Belle Valle (Birkenhead News, 14 Dec); on 17-18th December, in Merseyside; on 18-20 December in Worcester (Worcester News, 18 Dec); and on 17-18 December in Merseyside (Liverpool Echo, 19 Dec).
Leicestershire police officer barred for sharing sensitive information: PC Kayleigh-Mae Knight has been barred from policing after admitting to misconduct by taking photographs of police files containing private details, such as a missing person’s mental health information, an intelligence briefing slide marked ‘official sensitive’, and personal details of individuals involved in separate incidents, which she sent to two acquaintances (Leicestershire Live, 16 Dec).
Police use of live facial recognition technology (LFR): A report by the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner has revealed that police are unlawfully storing images of individuals who were arrested but not convicted (The Guardian, 08 Dec). These images remain in a database that could be used for facial recognition. The review recommends allowing those not convicted to request the deletion of their images. The 2023-2024 report by the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner raises concerns over the potential misuse of large data sets, such as those from Automatic Number Plate Recognition, beyond their original public safety purposes.
It also notes 149 applications for section 63G powers, a sharp increase from 9 applications in the previous period. S63 of PACE allows a chief police officer to retain DNA and fingerprints for three years from individuals arrested but not convicted of qualifying offences.
Police officers in South Wales and Gwent are using the app ‘Operator Initiated Facial Recognition’ to confirm identities in cases involving missing, at risk, or wanted individuals refusing to give details (it has been used by 70 officers for the latter), with usage limited to ‘situations relating to a risk of significant harm’ and no retention of photographs in private places (Emergency Service Times, 16 Dec).
Automatic number plate recognition in Kent: the technology will be rolled out on 17 roads (Kent Live, 17 Dec).
Police protest powers: In the year ending 31 March 2024, 10 forces made use of the powers, applying conditions to 473 protests, 434 of which were recorded as processions and 39 were recorded as assemblies. The Met police used these powers most often, applying them to 448 protests. There were 277 people arrested. Self-defined ethnicity was not stated or not recorded for 225 arrests.
Of the 52 arrests where self-defined ethnicity was stated, 43 people were 7 people stated their ethnicity as Asian or Asian British, one as Mixed and one as ‘Other’. Of the 59 arrests where officer-defined ethnicity was recorded, 47 were white. 7 people were defined by officers to be of Asian appearance, one as Black and 4 as ‘Other’ (Home Office, 17 Dec).
More money for the police from our taxes, again: Police forces in England and Wales could get up to £17.4bn in funding in 2025-26, an increase of £986.9m, or 3.5%, on the previous year. A third of the rise will be dependent on police and crime commissioners adding £14 to the council tax of an average band D property.
In a written statement, policing minister Diana Johnson said the provisional settlement ‘strikes the balance between protecting taxpayers and providing funding for police forces’. The total amount going to policing – including the money for local forces – will be £19.5bn, a real terms increase of 3% on the previous year. Of the additional £986.9m going to local police forces, £657.1m is made up of an increase in government grants. The remaining £329.8m is expected to be raised by council tax increases (BBC Politics, 17 Dec).
Gloucestershire constabulary: closure of cause of concern: The cause of concern was regarding the time it takes to answer emergency and non-emergency calls.
Cambridgeshire constabulary closure of cause of concern: The cause of concern was regarding managing registered sex offenders in the community.
Lincolnshire police: move to enhanced phase of monitoring & Engage: The HMICFRS issued a cause for concern because serious and complex crimes were assigned to inadequately trained officers; only 69 out of 101 cases showed effective investigations; correct outcomes were applied in just 56 out of 80 cases; effective supervision was noted in only 45 out of 83 cases; the force attended only 49 out of 93 calls within required times; staff lacked adequate training and accreditation to manage risks posed by registered sex offenders; the force is spending £74,000 per workforce member – higher than most forces – yet HMICFRS reported financial mismanagement as the force didn’t use 37 building sites and 462 vehicles are used only 5.7% of the time.
Inspection of North Wales police: Use of force incidents increased by 63% in the year ending March 2023, but HMICFRS estimates this figure excludes 5,741 incidents. The force's stop and search and use of force scrutiny panel reviews just four cases quarterly, chosen by the force, indicating insufficient auditing. Communication about search justifications was sometimes inadequate, and there is no consistent safeguarding process for children stopped, with no referrals made for children as young as under ten. Data quality issues include poor recording of ethnicity and other protected characteristics. Officers and supervisors expressed confusion about proper reporting of stop and search and use of force incidents. The force also requires improvement in investigating crime, protecting vulnerable people, leadership, and management.
Inspection of Leicestershire police: Black people are subjected to stop and search at a rate 3.1 times higher than white people. HMICFRS found that some officers admitted to routinely using compliant handcuffing during stop and searches. The force lacks clarity on how often body-worn video is not used when required, raising concerns about accountability. The force needs to improve its responsiveness to the public and effectiveness in investigating crime.
Inspection of Lancashire police: Stop and search incidents have risen by 20% compared to the previous year. Black individuals were 2.9 times more likely to be stopped and searched than White individuals. Of 43 individuals from self-identified ethnic minority backgrounds who were stopped, 32 cases had reasonable grounds. Use of force reporting has also surged by 54%. HMICFRS highlights concerns, urging officers to properly communicate the reasons for searches and allow detainees to explain their behaviour to prevent escalation. In some cases, officers did not record the full encounter with body-worn cameras.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary patrols and PSPO: 21st Nov-8th Dec, 175 hours of patrols were deployed targeting 'anti-social behaviour' and drug dealing. A Public Spaces Protection Order was enforced on eight occasions. The force made 3 arrests.
Former officer and mother sentenced for burying evidence: Former PC Lewis Edwards asked his mother Rebekah Edwards to hide evidence of his child sexual offences by burying his mobile phones in her garden so that the police could not find them (CPS, 17 Dec).
Inspection of police response to Southport riots: the police watchdog determined that police decision-making should have been ‘based on better intelligence’ and that delays in the implementation of the national mobilisation plan meant that forces could not deploy preventative and the full range of policing tactics which otherwise would have been at their disposal.
Provisional police grants 2025 to 2026: Forces in England Wales will received £10,144,059,522 under section 46. Under the Home Office Police Core Settlement alone, the Met will be receiving £1,214,086,831. The Home Secretary pledged an increase in funding by by £1 billion compared to last year, bringing the total up to £19.5 billion across forces. The funding model has been criticised by His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke as the distribution of funding is dependent on council tax provisions, with an inequitable impact on certain forces at the local level (Police Oracle, 17 Dec).
Met Police illegal spied on journalists: the Investigatory Powers Tribunal found that the Met accessed the phone records of two journalists and leaked this information to the PSNI (BBC, 17 Dec).
Greater London Authority Police and Crime Committee Meeting: Assembly Member Susan Hall raised how reducing and preventing violence of the thirteen measures tracked by MOPAC 6 were achieved in the period covered and 7 worsened or remained the same. The proportion of positive outcomes decreased for 3 out of the 4 metrics. The survey of the equality gap was highest for disabled people at 9% and for LGBT+ people. Assembly Member Duvall described the reputation of the Met as ‘tainted’. Assembly Member Emma Best told the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Kaya Comer-Schwartz, ‘don’t promise things which you can’t deliver’.
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Stay safe, and have yourselves a merry festive break! 🎄
StopWatch.