Stop and search scrutiny from the community a welcome step forward

Stop and searches in Staffordshire will now be scrutinised by members of the community in each local policing team, as part of a new drive to increase transparency and boost confidence.

In a first for the force, we have opened up our stop and search data to members of the public. Five members of the Black community in Newcastle and Stoke-on-Trent have reviewed 10 stop and searches on people from the Black and Black Heritage community, selected at random by the group.

The group, which met on Saturday 11 May at Newcastle Police Station, reviewed the justifications for the stop and search, known as ‘reasonable grounds’, written by the police officers at the time of the search. In order to enable the group to review the reasonable grounds recorded by officers, some simple training was delivered at the beginning of the session.

Of the 10 searches reviewed, seven were found to be valid by a majority or all participants. Two had mixed views, with half deeming them invalid. One search was found to be invalid by all participants. Feedback in two of the searches listed possible bias as being a reason for the officer conducting the search. These have been referred to our Professional Standards Department who have conducted a review and no evidence of discrimination or misconduct was found.

Chief Inspector Mark Barlow, stop and search lead for the force and who hosted the first scrutiny session, said: “This is a welcome first step in our expanding programme of independent scrutiny. It is vital that we police by consent and have the confidence of the communities we protect. By inviting members of seldom-heard communities, I hope we forge stronger relationships and demonstrate our openness to improve.

“The results of this scrutiny will have been fed back to the officers involved and also feed into our wider stop and search training so that all officers benefit.”

Staffordshire Commissioner for Police, Fire & Rescue and Crime Ben Adams said: “As Commissioner, a key part of my role is to act as the voice of the public, holding the Chief Constable and Staffordshire Police to account and making them answerable to the communities they serve.

“Stop and search is an important tactic for the Police, and our communities need to be confident that officers are using it in a way that is fair, appropriate and transparent. This pilot is a welcome addition to the independent scrutiny of stop and search and other Police powers that is carried out by panels of volunteers working with my office."

Following this successful trial, all local policing teams will now be required to establish their own stop and search scrutiny exercises in the coming months. Training to deliver the sessions will begin very soon and the results of any scrutiny sessions held will be published on the force website.