September 2024: Roasted on a spit by the police and crime committee
How the London assembly police and crime committee is (trying) to hold the Met accountable
Dear StopWatchers,
Welcome to this month’s roundup of all things law enforcement, where accountability, transparency, and common sense continue to take a back seat! Hackney schools, fresh from the Child Q scandal, have decided to reinvent ‘school policing’ with a new title for officers, because what’s in a name, right? Meanwhile, the Met’s Race Action Plan, limping along, promises more ‘scrutiny’ after it has been endlessly lacking to date. And in truly uplifting news, officers up and down the country are making headlines for all the wrong reasons, from punching innocent students and tasering kids, to groping women and sharing crime scene pics. Oh, and AI is on the case now, because if humans can’t get it right, why not throw some code at it? With the Met blaming social media for its bad rep and unable to pinpoint the fruits of a £340k Policing Board investment, truly, the future of justice looks bright!
In StopWatch news, we are pleased to share that a journal article written by StopWatch members on defunding the police has been published! Meanwhile our executive director was on Bristol Cable’s podcast about section 60; we joined our friends at Big Brother Watch and Baroness Shami Chakrabarti for their Facial recognition Lessons from the EU AI Act event; we co-hosted the inaugural Community Safety Reimagined event in Leeds alongside Harehills Action Team and the Racial Justice Network; and we were thrilled to have such a great turnout from supporters at our strategy day (see photo above). We are extremely grateful to all who were able to attend and helped to make the event such a success!
Roasted on a spit by the police and crime committee
During this month’s London assembly police and crime committee meeting, the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, and the Assistant Commissioner for Metropolitan Police Service Operations, Matt Twist, were well and truly lambasted from every direction.
On the topic of the riots following the Southport stabbings, Twist bemoaned the dissemination of footage of the police response, contending that sharing such videos on social media is ‘working to undermine confidence in policing’. When only 35% of Londoners trust the Met, and when this lack of trust and confidence in the police is most strongly felt by Black adults, we’ve got a feeling it’s not social media posts which are fracturing the public’s perception of the police, but officers themselves.
Pushing back on speculation in the press about two-tier policing, Twist insisted that ‘we police without fear or favour’, neglecting to reflect on the police’s long-term favouring of racial disproportionality. From targeting Black people with their use of force tactics at a rate 3.3 times higher than white people, to consistently stopping and searching Black people more frequently (ranging between 4.1 and 9.7 times more than white people over the last decade), the police are by all means not lacking in preference on which groups to overpolice. If, as the Assistant Commissioner suggests, ‘the police have the very difficult job of balancing everybody's rights’, then it would appear that the rights of Black people do not even feature on the scales for consideration. The bogeyman of the malicious social media cop-hater seeking to sow division and decrease trust in policing is but a figment of Mr. Twist’s twisted imagination.
The meeting later turned to the topic of the London Policing Board, which was established following the recommendation from the Casey Review to improve police accountability. Assembly member Sem Moema condemned how the Met has used the Board to justify their ‘lack of attendance [at committee meetings] and therefore accountability’. According to member Moema, the Board ‘has reduced visibility’ and acts in a way which ‘is in counter to’ what was put forward in the Casey Review, calling into question its capacity to implement ‘the systemic changes’ needed. Not only is the Board failing to engage sincerely with the accountability process, but assembly member Emma Best contends that the Board ‘actually flies in the face of what Baroness Casey suggested’, further wasting police resources by ‘replicating’ existing activities undertaken by the police and crime committee.
Swooping in to spare the assistant commissioner from further humiliation, deputy mayor Linden’s defence centred on the Board being ‘distinct’ and affirming that Baroness Casey:
she was not she she was [sic] not blind to the police and crime committee.
In a whooping slam dunk, Ms. Best retorts:
I’m not suggesting she is, I'm suggesting you and the mayor are.
Offering a lifeline, the assembly member asked Linden how the Board is providing value for money. Unable to demonstrate the Board’s track record to date, the deputy mayor plays the self-defence card that the Board is ‘evolving’, maturing’, and that the force must make sure that lessons are learnt.
Seemingly flooring member Best with the project’s £340,000 cost, the assembly member quips:
I mean £340 might be good value.
Deducing that each member of Board staff are being paid £1,000 a day, the assembly member pressed for what outputs were being gained for such a lofty expenditure. Linden tried to reassure assembly member Best that every effort is being made to ensure ‘that the board members are not actually over you know putting too much into what they're doing’, claiming that the Board members regularly exceed their contracted hours. Clinging to that fact that ‘a number of meetings have taken place’ and listing the data analysis, training, and ‘preparation and the reading of the papers’ they have busied themselves with.
Apparently taken aback by the low bar for productivity, assembly member Best claps back saying:
I mean if I'm paying someone £1,000 a day for work then I probably expect the preparation to take place as part of that.
Somehow managing to move on from that burn, the last item on the agenda was His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) recent inspection of the Met. To recap from our last newsletter, among other failings, the report details how the Met has no crime prevention strategy, conducts poor quality investigations, and that there is a 60% no further action rate for indecent imagery of children offence types.
Unsurprisingly, these findings were described variably by assembly members as a horrifying read, ‘damning’ (Susan Hall) and ‘sticky reading’ (Shaun Bailey). So how did the assistant commissioner respond? Conceding that the report was ‘sobering’, Twist nevertheless rejoiced in the fact that the report aligned with issues already identified as part of the force’s own internal assessments, ‘which at least shows that we are alert to them’.
The assistant commissioner also patted himself on the back for the fact that the force isn’t failing for non-victim-based crime and burglaries, all-the-while admitting that ‘for a period of time’ the force has made do with an ‘inexperienced workforce’. If the bar wasn’t already low enough for the Met, Matt Twist brings it down even lower. Two areas of crime detection are better than none though, eh?
All of this said and done, there is one point on which we are in agreement with the assistant commissioner: ‘serious reform is needed’. This is not possible while the force continues to evade accountability from the police and crime committee.
Deaths from police contact, cases old and new
David Brown
A few hours after being arrested by officers and taken into custody in Liverpool, David Brown collapsed at home and was taken to hospital where he passed away from an unknown cause of death. An investigation will be undertaken by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (Manchester Evening News, 11 Sep).
Lewis Skelton
The police watchdog has announced a new investigation into the death of Lewis Skelton, who was tasered four times and shot twice in the back by Humberside police officer B50 before dying in hospital on November 2016 (The National, 18 Sep).
Other news
Met officer in Wayne Couzens unit charged with r*pe: Former Met police officer Mark Tyrrell, who served in the same unit as David Carrick and Wayne Couzens, has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and r*pe cases. Tyrrell has also been charged with three counts of perverting the course of justice for allegedly deleting messages and pressuring a woman to provide false accounts (The Guardian, 02 Sep).
Police to use live facial recognition technology at 'specific events' in north Wales: the force first used the technology at the League One fixture in Wrexham AFC on the 7 September, with plans to extend its use further. Those on the watchlist can include people who may pose a risk of harm to themselves or others (Wrexham, 04 Sep).
Former Met assistant commissioner bashes Race Action Plan and stop and search: Neil Basu considers the Police Race Action plan to be ‘rubbish’, ‘utterly ineffective and utterly ignored’, pointing out that the Plan has been up and running since 2022 and has already gotten through three leaders (Policing Insight, 17 Sep). The Plan has also been criticised by us, Dawn Butler, The National Black Police Association and others for failing to spend £1.8 million of the £6 million funding allocated to it (Byline Times, 9 Sep). Neil Basu has spoken out about how he has regularly been targeted for stop and searches because of his Asian descent, saying that the tactic is ‘massively overused’ and often abused (Eastern Eye, 16 Sep).
Police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000: Home Office data shows that in 2023/24 17% of arrests were of those aged 17 and under. 75 (31%) resulted in a charge, of which 65 were for terrorism-related offences. 115 persons were stopped and searched by the Metropolitan Police Service under section 43 of TACT 2000. There were 11 arrests from section 43 stop and searches (12 Sep).
Ruling on officer assault on bus overturned: Initially found guilty of assault, Southwark crown court has subsequently overturned the conviction of PC Perry Lathwood who was found to have injured a woman’s arm and handcuffed her when arresting her on a bus in front of son on false suspicion of fare evasion in Croydon, in July 2023 (The Guardian, 13 Sep).
End to school policing in Hackney: Following the case of the strip search of Child Q, Hackney schools will change Safer Schools Officers’ roles to instead act as ‘tactical advisers’ centred on safeguarding and crime prevention (BBC, 18 Sep).
West Midlands police out of special measures despite shortcomings: The force has been returned to the default phase of monitoring even though it continues to inadequately manage the risk posed to the public by registered sex offenders and by online child abuse offenders, as well as continuing to ineffectively carry out investigations to satisfactory levels for victims (HMICFRS, 18 Sep).
Sexual offences and domestic abuse throughout the forces: following a freedom of information request, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that 27 forces have at least one officer facing more than one allegation of sexual offences; force had a minimum of one officer with over 5 allegations; and two forces had at least one officer accused of over 15 offences (The Justice Gap, 19 Sep). Following the Centre for Women’s Justice super-complaint in 2020, over 200 victims of police domestic abuse have come forward, 45% of which are police officers or staff (Independent, 18 Sep).
Gross misconduct as officer ignored assault victim: Essex police officer Thomas Lee has been found to have committed gross misconduct in July last year after failing to listen to the victim and his colleague, incorrectly recording that the victim had not been assaulted and that no crime had occurred, without taking any measures to secure evidence (Essex Live, 19 Sep).
Met officer who put Taser to boy’s neck: PC Connor Jones has only been given a written warning after gross misconduct was proven for the officer’s unnecessary, unreasonable, and disproportionate use of force. During a stop and search in Greenwich, the officer stopped five children and tasered Jamar Powell, a Black 16-year-old at the time, despite Jamar showing no resistance (IOPC, 24 Sep). PC Jones claimed to have forgotten (1) to turn on his body-worn camera, (2) why he told Jamar he fit the suspect description when he did not, and (3) to record the use of force incident (Independent, 19 Sep).
Domestic abuse protection order pilot: launching in November, the pilot will involve electronic tagging and will require perpetrators to inform police of changes of address and their name. There will also be no maximum duration for these orders and breach will be punishable by up to 5 years of imprisonment (The Standard, 20 Sep).
Stop and search operations aiming to disrupt child exploitation: South Yorkshire police have launched their Be Safe scheme in Barnsley, which will include stop and search in a bid to disrupt ‘country lines and child exploitation criminal activity’ (Barnsley Chronicle, 22 Sep).
Avon and Somerset Police using AI to solve cold cases: the AI technology Söze is being trialled by the force on 27 complex cases, but the force is hoping to extend the use of the tool in the future to identify new lines of inquiry for detectives. The Met is also using AI to trace the origin of blades and match them to crimes (Independent, 23 Sep).
Live facial recognition deployed in Southend: the technology was deployed for four days starting 15 September following a machete attack which saw four people arrested (Essex Live, 23 Sep).
Annual stop and search data release: In the year ending 31 March 2024: force was used in 28% of stop and searches; the arrest rate following a stop and search is only 14%, with 69% of stop and searches (PACE) needing ‘no further action’; there was a 20% increase in section 60 suspicionless searches; Black people were searched at a rate five times higher than white people; Black people had the highest rate of being fully stripped in a stop and search (1.8%), compared with 1.6% for Asian or Asian British people, 1.5% for people of mixed or other ethnicity and 1.2% for white people.
You can read our in-depth analysis of this data here (26 Sep).
Sam’s Law Petition: On 8 August, footage appears to show Samuel Ackon, a Black physical education student, being chased by a Northamptonshire police officer in plain clothing, slammed into a gate and repeatedly punched while lying on the ground. Samuel recounted his version of events on his Tiktok account. His legal representative Miriam Altaf has launched a petition in response calling for the creation of an independent body tasked to investigate allegations of police misconduct to ensure a proper degree of transparency in the scrutiny of police procedure.
Met launch Race Action Plan: The stop and search charter will include a higher threshold for authorising the most intrusive types of strip searches and section 60 suspicionless searches, as well as external scrutiny of traffic search recordings and expanding data on use of force. The Met has also launched its children strategy, which will introduce a cadet unit in every borough command unit, consider deferred prosecution for child offending ‘when appropriate’, and adopt the Child Gravity Matrix to consider whether caution, community resolution, diversionary activity or other outcomes are most appropriate on a case-by-case basis.
Inspection of Staffordshire police: The report found that the force is failing to record its use of force consistently. Black and ethnic minority groups made up 10.8% of the recorded use of force incidents and 11.7% of arrests. The recording of use of force incidents that resulted in an officer being injured may not be accurate, with contradictory data seeming to exaggerate cases of officer injuries. Not all officers were even aware of scrutiny panels, the panels weren't always attended and panels weren't always representative of the community.
Inspection of Norfolk constabulary: The report found that use of force incidents have increased by 8.5% since the previous year. While people from ethnic minority backgrounds account for 5.3 percent of the local population in Norfolk, they account for 8.5 percent of use of force incidents. 8.1 percent of its use of force incidents resulted in the subject being injured compared to the average of 5.1 percent across forces in England and Wales.
Research: driving while broke: The researcher found disparities whereby lower value vehicles were more likely to be searched than higher value vehicles. However, searches of lower value vehicles were less likely to result in contraband recovery. The author draws from this that officers may treat individuals differently on the basis of their perceived socioeconomic status.
Research: the benefit of a preventative collaborative approach to 'county lines': Research conducted by Cardiff University’s Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre finds that collaboration between schools, social services, healthcare providers, and law enforcement is essential in identifying and protecting vulnerable individuals. The report underscores the need for a nuanced approach to tackling these networks, one that involves not just police action, but also preventative measures aimed at educating and protecting vulnerable populations.
Section 60 watch*
Merseyside
Merseyside (31 Aug / 01 Sep)
Lincolnshire
Skegness (16-18 Sep)
West Midlands
Walsall (24-26 Sep)
* This is not a comprehensive list
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