Police abuse of their stop and search powers is so serious that black people need “protecting” from stereotyping and racial biases, the police watchdog said, as it revealed allegations one child was stopped 60 times.
The Guardian understands the force concerned was the Metropolitan police which is alleged to have stopped the teenager so often he was left traumatised. He was sometimes searched multiple times in the same day over two years, starting in 2018 when he was aged 14.
The claims, which are still under investigation, were revealed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct in a special review which made 18 recommendations for police across England and Wales to radically reform use of the controversial power.
The IOPC said misuse of stop and search was causing “trauma” and damaging confidence in policing despite repeated police promises of reform.
It cited cases where innocent black youngsters had been hit and had force used against them, and people being handcuffed within seconds of police stopping them.
Stop and search is the continued flashpoint of police and community relations, especially with black people.
Home Office figures show that black people are seven times more likely to be stopped across England and Wales, with the vast majority of stops leading to no further action.
Stops require reasonable suspicion, and the IOPC criticised the use of weak grounds such as “looking nervous” and unspecific intelligence such as someone being in “a high crime area”.
Sal Naseem, from the IOPC, told the Guardian: “In the evidence we have got, we do see examples of racial bias and stereotyping influencing the decisions officers are making.”
He added the problems “go beyond a few officers”, and said: “Stop and search is a legitimate tool. It needs to be used with more care and currently is being used too bluntly.”
The two most important recommendations from the IOPC are that plans are drawn up to protect communities from the misuse of stop and search.
The watchdog said police chiefs and the College of Policing, which sets professional standards, should “develop guidelines on how to safeguard people from a black, Asian or other minority ethnic background from being stopped and searched because of decision-making based upon assumptions, stereotypes and racial bias, and mitigate the risks of indirect discrimination”.
The IOPC also said that policing should order research into the “trauma caused predominantly to people from a black, Asian and other minority ethnic background, including children and young people, by the use of stop and search”.
Stop and search rose by 24% to 695,009 in the year ending March 2021, according to Home Office figures, fuelled by increased searches for drugs, which rose by 36% to 478,576 compared with the previous year. Seventy-seven per cent of stops had a recorded outcome of “no further action”.
Naseem said handcuffing during stops was used too routinely, and the report cited statistics showing a potential racial bias, adding: “Experimental statistics published by the Home Office covering 2019-20 indicate that black people were about 5.7 times more likely to have force used on them than white people across all tactics. Additionally, black people were eight times more likely to be ‘compliant handcuffed’.”
The IOPC said officers could see wholly innocent actions as grounds for suspicion and cited the case of a “black child riding a bicycle near to a pedestrian during Covid-19 lockdown restrictions” who was suspected of being involved in a drugs deal.
In another case two brothers were searched after a fist bump was mistaken for a drug deal.
Amanda Pearson, who leads for police chiefs on stop and search, said: “Stop and search, even when done with respect and courtesy, is intrusive and has an impact on people. We recognise that the level of disproportionality in a tactic like stop and search is continuing to damage relations with people from black, Asian and other ethnic minority backgrounds.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that we balance tackling crime with building trust and confidence in our communities, and we haven’t always got that balance right with stop and search.”
The Met uses stop and search much more frequently than any other force and said last year 4,800 offensive weapons seized through stop and search alone.
