July 2023: Get a grip
The public is still being failed 'too often and in too many forces', says inspector of constabulary
Dear StopWatchers,
This month, Met commissioner Mark Rowley published his ‘Turnaround Plan’ in full. ‘A New Met for London’ is a ‘two year plan on how the Met will deliver more trust, less crime, and high standards’. The London mayor described the plan as ‘the last chance’ for the Met to get things right (The Voice, 18 Jul). Along with several other racial justice organisations, we signed an open letter written by the Runnymede Trust expressing concerns about the details of the plan. ‘Increasing the presence and powers of any institution without addressing its fundamental issues is clearly not the solution’, the letter states (Runnymede Trust, 28 Jul).
This month also marked 100 days since the publication of the Casey Review. The London Assembly recognised the occasion by hosting a Q&A session with the commissioner. During the Q&A, Rowley told the panel: ‘[…] unless we want an American style of stop and search where you slam people against the wall and put their arms up and all the rest of it […] if you take stop and search to being maximum aggression and maximum intrusiveness on every occasion, which is not where we want to be, officers are making judgements based on the situation and trying to be proportionate and sensible about what they do […] that’s always going to be difficult’ (24:36).
But as we all know, there’s nothing exclusively American about violence in in everyday or ‘routine’ policing – as we were reminded this month by a video that circulated widely on social media showing Met officers in Croydon restraining and handcuffing an extremely distressed Black woman in front of her young son on suspicion of bus fare evasion (The Guardian, 24 Jul). An eyewitness told The Mirror that the woman received no apology from the officers once they confirmed she had indeed paid her fare and that she was free to go (The Mirror, 24 Jul), despite the clear emotional and physical harm caused. Responding to the incident, we told MyLondon:
‘As much as the police like to pay lip service to the idea of ‘policing by consent’ and de-escalatory approaches, this video proves that officers are still all too quick to resort to unnecessary and excessive use of force, no matter how minor the alleged ‘crime’ in question may be or the harm that a heavy-handed response could inflict on an individual and on the community more broadly.’
The incident has now been referred to the police watchdog for investigation (IOPC, 25 Jul).
Despite the frequently-touted (yet wholly ignorant) narrative that goes something like ‘it could be worse – just look at policing in the States’, as subscribers of this newsletter will know, police violence is a daily occurrence here in the UK too – despite the efforts of some public figures to portray police officers in this country as chirpy bobbies on the beat looking out for their communities and dutifully upholding the law.
This month the Met also announced further plans to identify and target the city’s ‘100 most dangerous men’ (The Guardian, 31 Jul). The so-called ‘precision policing’ strategy will use crime data to focus police activity in the capital, and will be overseen by Professor Lawrence Sherman. Sherman, a Cambridge-based academic widely regarded as the founder of ‘evidence-based policing’, was appointed to the new role of the Met’s chief scientific officer in September 2022, under the leadership of Mark Rowley. A pilot of ‘precision’ stop and search is already underway in Lambeth and Barking and Dagenham. In response to the Met’s announcement, StopWatch’s director Habib Kadiri told The Guardian:
Notwithstanding the fact that the majority of searches conducted are for drugs and mostly find nothing of note, we are interested to see what a precision approach yields that significantly improves outcomes in terms of reducing both violence and the suffering of those harassed by repeated instances of police profiling, particularly of a racial nature.
As we have seen many times over the years in the UK and beyond, data-driven policing techniques are rarely objective, faultless solutions, which is why it’s so important that we keep a close watch on schemes such as ‘precision policing’ - especially when stop and search is involved.
This month at StopWatch, we…
Were glad to hear the Supreme Court’s decision in the ‘Officer W80’ case (which we were ‘interveners’ in): you can read more about the judgment and what it means for police misconduct cases in this blog post by StopWatch volunteer Corey Campbell, or watch Hickman & Rose solicitor Daniel Machover’s interview with Channel 4 here
Welcomed a new member of staff to the team: Rachel Zerihan has joined us as operations manager!
Published a response to new Home Office research on section 60 orders, a new factsheet on the stop and search powers in the Public Order Act 2023, and a blog post by one of our volunteers, Ella, to go alongside the factsheet
Got the ball rolling on our new research project on serious violence reduction orders (SVROs)
Hosted a taster session with the Peel Institute youth club of our ‘Changemakers’ programme
Attended a vigil outside the French Embassy in memory of Nahel Merzouk, the 17-year-old shot and killed by a police officer in Paris last month
Topics in this newsletter include:
The latest PEEL report from HMICFRS (the inspector of constabulary)
Police violence against women at GMP and beyond
And in Terrible Tech: an Observer investigation reveals that the Met shared sensitive data about crime victims with Facebook for targeted advertising
Please enjoy our roundup of stories below.
Poor performance management and lack of oversight in stop and search ‘threaten[ing] the legitimacy of policing’
This month, the police inspectorate published its latest PEEL spotlight report, ‘Police performance: Getting a grip’ (HMICFRS, 7 Jul).
What did the report say about stop and search – one of ‘the most intrusive police powers’? ‘When the police use their powers disproportionately – in differing proportions on different ethnic groups’, inspectors wrote, ‘it causes suspicion among some communities that they are being unfairly targeted’ (we would argue that this ‘suspicion’ is not just a subjective feeling, but is entirely well-founded and consistently corroborated by the police’s own data).
While some forces were found to be monitoring stop and search closely, others had review processes in place that were nothing more than ‘superficial’. Inspectors found ‘many examples of data on ethnicity and disability for use of force not being collected’. And if this data isn’t collected properly, it allows police forces to make excuses for their actions more easily - and makes it more difficult for them to be held to account.
Inspectors also found that external scrutiny groups and independent advisory groups on stop and search were not always chaired by someone independent of the police, and that some of these groups ‘were given no detail about how the force monitors stop and search’. Some forces were also failing to share the findings of these external scrutiny meetings with the public. As in countless other recent reports, issues with body-worn video were raised: ‘we found incidents where the BWV camera wasn’t used despite policy and guidance suggesting it should have been’. This issue has been around since the tech was introduced.
The report also outlined the impact of poor performance management (meaning ‘all aspects of how the police collect, analyse and use data to understand and improve their performance’), which inspectors said threatened the legitimacy of policing.
In summary, Andy Cooke, who was appointed HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary in April last year, wrote:
‘Put simply, too often and in too many forces, the public is being failed, either at the first point of contact in the response to a call for help or in the service a victim of crime receives’.
Former victims watchdog to examine women’s strip-search claims against GMP - but ‘why now?’, asks victim
Content warning: rape; sexual violence
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham says he has asked Dame Vera Baird KC, the former victims commissioner, to conduct a review of three ‘extremely distressing’ detentions of women by Greater Manchester police (The Guardian, 27 Jul). The women have accused the force of unjustified strip-searches and sexual assault in custody.
One of the three women, Zayna Iman, alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted by GMP officers while in custody in 2021 (Sky News, 27 Jul). She has obtained some of the CCTV footage from her 40-hour detention, but there are three hours’ worth of footage missing – in several distinct gaps – that GMP has failed to supply. Police have not explained the missing footage, despite confirmation that it is in their possession.
The footage that GMP has so far provided shows an unconscious woman with her hands cuffed behind her back being carried into a police cell. She is then forced face-down onto a thin mattress, while officers take off her jeans, cut off her underwear, pull a pair of oversized custody shorts over her legs, then remove her top and bra – leaving her alone and topless in the cell. Iman’s allegation against the officers is supported by her medical records, which show evidence of sexual injuries.
In response, Zayna Iman said: ‘My question to Andy Burnham and Dame Vera Baird is why now? BOTH have bene aware of my allegations since 2021. […] I believe you are both working on damage limitation for your mates @gmpolice’.
Following coverage of Zayna’s story, several other women approached Sky News with allegations of abuse in custody by different police forces – like Sinead Foley, who was strip searched by police in Birmingham last year (Sky News, 27 Jul).
Earlier in the month, a BBC investigation also found that police forces are ‘failing vulnerable women who say they have been sexually exploited by officers’. Out of more than 500 allegations of officers abusing their position in this way, just 24 were charged, according to BBC data (BBC, 4 Jul).
On Zayna Iman’s case, Northern Police Monitoring Project (NPMP) said:
‘Too often women are disbelieved and disregarded, whilst police officers are believed and afforded a level of trust and respect that is not deserved. Indeed, it is only through the persistence of Zayna that this story has garnered attention.
[…]
Gendered and sexual violence are key elements of the history and present of police violence in Britain, and specifically within Greater Manchester Police. Zayna’s important story is therefore part of a much bigger picture of ongoing gendered State and police violence.’
(NPMP, 27 Jul).
StopWatch stands in solidarity with Zayna and other survivors of police sexual violence.
Deaths from police contact, cases old and new
Unnamed 30-year-old man, Croydon
The IOPC has launched an investigation after a 30-year-old man died shortly after being arrested in Croydon town centre on Saturday 15 July. An ambulance was requested after the man became unwell in police custody, and he was taken to hospital where he was later pronounced dead. (IOPC, 24 Jul)
Unnamed 34-year-old man, St Austell
A 34-year-old man died on Thursday 13 July after being detained in a police van by officers from Devon & Cornwall Police. The IOPC are now investigating. (IOPC, 21 Jul)
Deaths following police contact / custody at the highest level for 5 years
Official statistics published this month reveal the highest number of deaths recorded for five years and an increase of almost double the previous year, according to INQUEST. In addition to the custody deaths, there were three fatal police shootings (including the death of Chris Kaba), 28 fatalities from police-related road traffic incidents (18 of which were police pursuit-related incidents), and 52 apparent suicides following police custody. (INQUEST, 28 Jul)
Other news
Black youth worker Tasered by police loses claim for damages: Edwin Afriyie, 36, had his arms folded and was standing at a distance from officers when he was Tasered by City of London police after a road traffic stop, body-worn footage showed. But a high court judge has now ruled that the officer was justified in believing he needed to use a Taser. (The Guardian, 30 Jun)
Top police officer ‘persuaded sex assault victim not to report crime’: James Senior, who was a detective chief inspector for Thames Valley Police, allegedly told the woman to “go home and sleep on it” after she reported an incident involving Met Police sergeant Anish Sharma. (Evening Standard, 3 Jul)
Elderly Black man who was punched by police officer wins judicial review: The High Court has overturned a decision by the police watchdog, the IOPC, that a police officer who held 71-year-old Errol Dixon by the neck and punched him in the face had ‘no case to answer’ for misconduct. The IOPC’s original decision has now been quashed and the case will be reconsidered. (The Guardian, 5 Jul)
Poor use of stop and search found at two thirds of police forces: Failures in implementing stop and search have been recorded at two thirds of England and Wales’ 43 police forces, according to the independent police regulator. Separate data analysed by PoliticsHome also found that every force in the country had increased its use of stop and search. (PoliticsHome, 5 Jul)
Six women to sue Met over ‘failures to stop rapist cop David Carrick’: Six of Carrick’s victims are now working with a lawyer from the Centre for Women’s Justice over claims that the force breached the Human Rights Act by missing several opportunities to catch him. (LBC, 10 Jul)
Nearly 200 ex-police work at ‘independent’ watchdog: According to the IOPC’s most recent staff diversity report, a quarter of staff (136 out of 544) in the IOPC’s two operations divisions previously held roles in the police force. Overall, police officers and staff make up 18% of the IOPC, where just 68 complaints resulted in misconduct hearings last year. (openDemocracy, 26 Jul)
Six Met officers to be questioned after elderly Black woman handcuffed and put in spit hood: The IOPC has launched an investigation into six Met police officers after a 90-year-old woman with dementia was placed in handcuffs and a spit hood and had a Taser pointed at her. (The Voice, 27 Jul)
Police chief faces serious sexual offence allegations: Will Kerr, the suspended chief constable of Devon & Cornwall police, is being investigated over serious allegations of sexual offences in Northern Ireland, where he was a police officer for 27 years before leaving in 2018. (BBC, 27 Jul)
Section 60 watch*
Essex
Harlow (2-3 Jul)
Greater Manchester
Brinnington (10-11 Jul)
West Midlands
Walsall (11-12 Jul)
Hampshire
Thornhill (9-10 Jul)
*This is not a comprehensive list.
Terrible tech: Meta and the Met in cahoots again
This month, an Observer investigation revealed that Britain’s biggest police force gathered sensitive data about crime victims and shared it with Facebook for targeted advertising, via a tool known as ‘Meta Pixel’.
‘The data was collected by a tracking tool embedded in the Met’s website and included records of browsing activity about people using a “secure” online form for victims and witnesses to report offences’ (The Observer, 15 Jul). Other forces across the UK were also found to be using the tool, including Police Scotland, Norfolk Constabulary and Suffolk Constabulary.
‘In one case, Facebook received a parcel of data when someone clicked a link to “securely and confidentially report rape or sexual assault” to the Met online. This included the sexual nature of the offence being reported, the time the page was viewed and a code denoting the person’s Facebook account ID.’
The Observer’s analysis also found ‘many police websites sharing information with Google for advertising purposes’, too.
Other police tech stories this month included the use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology at the British Grand Prix by Northamptonshire police (The Guardian, 8 Jul). ‘Subjugating protestors and attendees to mass surveillance is outrageous & undemocratic’, said campaign group Big Brother Watch.
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Stay safe,
StopWatch.