June 2024: Revolutionising cop culture from within – a brilliant strategy that’s never worked before
The National Black Police Association has suspended support for the National Race Action Plan after water found to still be wet
Dear StopWatchers,
This month’s edition of police missteps and overreach is as rich as ever. When a Black anti-knife crime activist did the Met’s job for them, he was promptly thanked by being wrongly flagged on the Met’s facial recognition database and held for 30 minutes until he handed over his passport. Big Brother Watch chimed in, highlighting that this tech boasts an impressive 85% false positive rate – because who needs accuracy in law enforcement, right? Meanwhile, Greater Manchester police proudly reported a 73% surge in stop and searches, all-the-while only disproportionately targeting Black people in comparison with all other ethnicities. We’ve got a running theme on our hands, with Runnymede Trust’s report finding that Black children are six times more likely than their white peers to be strip searched. Another heart warming reminder of how far the police have come in addressing institutional racism.
In the realm of new police strategies, Dorset’s ‘100 days of summer’ initiative promises a season of officers patrolling key spots, using their magical dispersal powers to shoo away anyone showing the faintest whiff of ‘anti-social behaviour.’ Then there’s Shamraze Arshad, the former officer who thought his badge was a licence for personal escapades, now jailed for stalking a vulnerable woman. For a touch of rural absurdity, Surrey police decided to play rodeo with a runaway cow, driving straight into it – a brilliant display of animal control tactics. All in all, just another average month in the world of British policing.
In other news, as the general election draws to its conclusion, we attended the event ‘Is Race in the next Parliament?’ hosted by British Future, on the phenomenon of an issue that is ‘often seen as of relatively low salience overall in government’ while also the subject of unconstructive ‘culture wars’ and generating polarising debates. We, like everyone else in this space, live in hope that the political profile of race policy improves after 04 July.
We also welcome our newest recruit, Janelle Lau, who will be supporting our policy advocacy team over the course of her internship and has co-written this newsletter!
Revolutionising cop culture from within – a brilliant strategy that’s never worked before
Despite 52 Black people dying in police custody or following police contact between 2011 and 2021 (INQUEST, 20 Feb 2023), it wasn’t until the global outrage sparked by the murder of George Floyd, and the subsequent introspection among the UK press over the behaviour of our own police forces that the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and College of Policing decided do something (sort of) about it… doing nothing might have brought bad publicity, after all.
Behold the National Race Action Plan, announced following Floyd’s murder and mass protests over the police, the proclaimed goal was to revive the force’s legitimacy by bringing an end to the discriminatory and disproportionate use of force inflicted on Black Brits. At the time, The National Black Police Association (NBPA) supported the NPCC and College of Policing’s delivery of the plan. However, subsequent instances of superficial engagement and performative platitudes proved to be the final nail in the coffin from the association’s standpoint (INQUEST, 11 Jun). The NBPA press release does not mince its words as it calls out the deficiencies of the inaction plan itself and the force in general: the racist and discriminatory treatment of Black officers pleading for support; senior leaders’ attempts to conceal complaints by whistleblowers; and the chief constables’ staff networks which:
gaslight communities… giv[ing] the impression that things are improving, when they are not.
Beyond the usual police prerogative of unchecked abuse of power, the NBPA also exposes how several chief constables and the Metropolitan Police Service have actively sought to starve the Race Action Plan and its local offshoots of funding. In some cases, chief constables can’t even be bothered to pretend to be tackling racism in their local forces, declaring unabashedly their intentions to cut funds for the plan altogether after March 2025. What a desperate bid to make sure that not a single stone in the foundation of the status quo gets turned!
So, the NBPA announced that it has suspended support for the National Race Action Plan (Guardian, 20 Jun). Responding to the news, former Met assistant commissioner Neil Basu, who retired in 2022 in part because of his colleagues’ lack of commitment to race reforms, said:
Communities will be looking on aghast at the promises that have not been kept.
In light of the public’s plummeting confidence in the police (Guardian, 18 Apr), it might be more accurate to say that ‘communities will be shrugging their shoulders and saying “we expected nothing else!”’
Given that denial is one of the NPCC’s strong suits, chair Gavin Stephens’s response to the announcement came as no surprise:
There has been a renewed sense of purpose and direction under the new leadership of the plan since September 2023 and we plan on publishing our first ever progress report on the plan in a matter of weeks. This will give people a sense of what we have achieved and our future direction.
But there is a good chance the progress report won’t be worth the paper it’s written on, because we already know the track record. Regardless of the ‘new’ leadership, Black people still die seven times more often than white people when the police use restraint (INQUEST, 20 Feb 2023). The cases of Child X (BBC, 19 Oct 2023) and Jocelyn Agyemang (BBC, 14 Jun) are only two of the many poignant reminders of the ongoing prevalence of police violence and mistreatment of Black people.
The fact that the NBPA suspended its support for the National Race Action Plan is no trifle matter. Even police chiefs appear to be treating the news as momentous, with reports that they are engaging in crisis talks as a last ditch effort to seem like they are sincerely addressing the force’s issue with race… or at least to neutralise the embarrassment of a situation in which NBPA president Andy George plans to give evidence in support of the chair of the Met’s Black Police Association, who is taking a discrimination case against the force to employment tribunal.
However, when even ‘one of the most senior minority ethnic officers ever to serve in British policing’ admitted to quitting the force because ‘his fellow bosses lacked the will to change’, please do forgive us if we seem a little pessimistic for the outcome of all this. As the NBPA has devolved decision-making to local Black Police Associations on whether pigs can fly (or be reformed, pick your preferred metaphor), we will have to await the the organisation’s National Executive Committee meeting in late July for the final verdict on whether it will stick to its guns and continue to take a stand against other policing bodies, or otherwise get back in line. At the very least, their call for the National Race Action Plan to be seized from chief constables’ control, and given to another body with ‘real power to force through improvements in all police services’, nods towards their refusal to capitulate to a watering down of standards.
Deaths from police contact, cases old and new
Hassan Yahya (jury decision)
The inquest jury into the shooting of Hassan Yahya, a 30-year-old Black man, by a police officer concluded that the fatal shooting was lawful.
Although Hassan was in possession of two knives, he made no attempt to harm anyone as he fled Ministry of Defence and Metropolitan police officers on 8 March 2020. In the hearing, consultant psychiatrist Dr Akenzua submitted evidence that the premature discharge of Hassan from mental health services and his paranoid schizophrenia are the most likely causes underpinning his actions on the day of his death.
The inquest found that the two officers involved escalated the situation by ignoring directions to treat the matter as a ‘Trojan stop only’. As one officer shot Hassan within seconds of exiting his car, Hassan’s family rejects claims that the officers were in imminent danger and is considering a legal challenge (INQUEST, 31 May).
Other news
Legal challenge against Met for flawed facial recognition technology: An anti-knife crime activist has launched a legal challenge against the Met after he was stopped, held by police for almost 30 minutes and threatened with arrest due to a mistake by live facial recognition technology. Big Brother Watch calculated that this technology had a 85% chance of false positive identification (MyLondon, 4 Jun).
Crowdfunder: STOP mass facial recognition surveillanceRunnymede Trust study: Black children are more than 6 times more likely than white children to be strip searched and Black adults 4.7 times more likely. The Met conducts the most searches of this type, with nearly half of carried out on Black children, who comprise 16.9% of London’s child population (Guardian, 10 Jun).
Massive rise in stop and search in Manchester: Greater Manchester police saw a 73% increase in stop-search encounters in 2022/23 compared with the national average increase of 3%. Black people were 2.4% more likely to be searched and Asians 1.4% more likely. Section 60 suspicion-less searches increased in 2023 from 2022, but the resultant arrest rate fell and the likelihood of positive outcomes decreased (GMCA, 11 Jun).
Second section 60 in 2024 in Bristol finds no weapons: Police were granted powers to stop and search without suspicion after two men in their twenties suffered injuries from a knife attack in the Easton part of the city (Bristol Post, 13 Jun).
Following arrests of 11 men in relation to the incident, all on suspicion of attempted murder, officers also searched 14 individuals under 25 years of age. They did not find any weapons on any of the people stopped, but reported two people were carrying cannabis.
This outcome fares similarly to another controversial section 60 authorisation made in February of this year, Avon and Somerset police’s first use of the power in five years (Avon & Somerset Police & Crime Commissioner, 11 Jun). Reacting to the news, Bristol Copwatch commented on Twitter: ‘#Section60 does not take weapons off the streets. It is ineffective and racist in its approach… The constabulary's willingness to use disproportionate and racist policing powers says a lot about their attitude towards our communities.’
Former police officer jailed for misconduct: Shamraze Arshad was found to have abused his position to pursue an intimate relationship with a vulnerable suicidal woman he met while on duty. When off duty, Arshad accessed her personal details from a police log. Despite being arrested and released on bail in 2021 with conditions to avoid contact, he continued to harass the woman by showing up repeatedly at her house (CPS, 14 Jun).
Gen Z lack of confidence in police: Only 44% of UK Gen Z have confidence in the police. This significant generational distrust is not found in 85 other nations surveyed. Researchers suggest that it may stem from factors such as increased exposure to police misconduct on social media, constrained policing budgets, and two thirds of all stop and searches in the year ending March 2022 targeting people aged between 10 and 29 years old (Police Foundation, 14 Jun).
Surrey Police deliberately drive police car into cow: Responsible for catching a cow which had run loose, footage of the incident shows the police driving into the cow, with the cow’s head and part of its torso trapped under the vehicle (Sky News, 16 Jun).
Serving officer admits to multiple counts of assault: Paul Whitehurst, a detective sergeant with Warwickshire police, pleaded guilty to four charges of assault by beating at Chester Crown Court. The assaults took place between October and December 2023. Whitehurst is currently suspended from duty and has been in custody since January. He is due to be sentenced on 29 July. The force said the offences damaged confidence in policing. He also faces a separate charge of sexual assault, due to be dealt with by the courts at a later date (BBC, 24 Jun).
Brits ‘want police to have more modern tech’: According to Mark43, a company that ‘provides new software solutions for police and public safety agencies’, the vast majority (89%) of respondents to an online survey of 1,062 UK residents conducted in May 2024 said that they support investments in technology to free police to engage with their communities, with emergency backup call handling systems, software to pinpoint locations and modern report writing systems. 86% of respondents said they want to see more police in their communities, with 78% responding that they specifically support greater visibility for crime prevention (Business Wire, 26 Jun).
Police forces splurge Home Office windfall on anti-social behaviour measures: In February 2024, the Home Office announced a one-year funding boost of £66m for police forces to crack down on anti-social behaviour. This is how some are spending it:
Devon and Cornwall police are spending £1m on extra uniformed police and street marshals in towns and city centres.
Avon and Somerset plan to deliver 12,000 extra hours of uniformed patrols.
Nottinghamshire police will spend £1.5m on increasing uniform patrols.
Humberside police force will spend £1.39m on ‘targeted initiatives’.
The Met will allocate £6.5m for hotspot policing.
Merseyside launched a Youth Empowerment Scheme with activities to steer young people away from anti-social or criminal behaviour.
Durham will spend some of its £2m towards extra hotspot enforcement patrols (Emergency Services Times, 27 Jun).
Home Office to prioritise upgrades to face matching tech for police forces: The Home Office Biometrics (HOB) unit has launched an effort to promote the creation of a new national facial matching service to be used in law enforcement. It has published a prior information notice on plans for an online workshop on 17 July that will provide police forces’ in-house IT teams and tech industry suppliers with an update on technical integration plans. The move follows the unveiling of plans for a national facial recognition database in October of last year, and the recent announcement of £55.5 million in funding for police forces to deploy the technology.
The notice reads: ‘Mobile biometric services could be extended into the modality of face, exploiting the ubiquitous imaging capability now omnipresent in smartphones, together with apps and infrastructure which is already integrated with the [Home Office] Biometrics Services Gateway’ (UK Authority, 28 Jun).
Section 60 watch*
London
Westminster (08-09 Jun)
Avon and Somerset
Bristol (09-10 Jun)
Gloucestershire
St Paul’s, The Moors, Hester’s Way, St Marks and Pittville areas of Cheltenham (24-25 Jun)
West Midlands
Willenhall, Blakenall and Bloxwich (01 Jun)
Greater Manchester
Oldham (23-24 Jun)
* This is not a comprehensive list
StopWatch is a volunteer led organisation that relies on the generosity of trusts and grant funders to operate. We DO NOT accept funding from the government or police as we believe this would compromise our ability to critically challenge.
We’d appreciate any one-off or regular donations to help support our work. You can click on our Donate button below to go through to our donation page.
Stay safe,
StopWatch.