Police told to film all stop and searches of young black men

ALL police stop and searches of young black men in the West Midlands will have to be recorded on body-worn cameras before being reviewed by more senior officers to ensure they are appropriate.

It comes as new figures show black people are 4.4 times more likely to be searched than white people, despite making up a smaller fraction of the population.

The figures have sparked debate about the controversial tactic and have threatened to put the elected Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) on collision course with senior officers, who defend stop and search as a necessary tool.

Now, in an effort to show searches are appropriate and closely scrutinised, police will be expected to film every search of a black man aged between 18 and 34.

Footage will then be watched back by a supervisor as part of the review process. If any searches are not filmed on bodycams, officers will be expected to explain why.

The vast majority of searches are already recorded using bodycams – the figure was 95.3% over the 12-month period.

Nevertheless, the step to ensure every search of young black men is captured without fail reflects the strength of feeling around the issue and the need to be seen to be accountable.

Video footage could also prove crucial in the event of complaints.

Supporters of stop and search insist it is a vital tool in helping to crack down on crime and gather intelligence but critics say results are not good enough and searches risk breeding hostility among minority communities who feel they are being unfairly targeted.

Only around a third of stop and searches result in anything potentially incriminating being found, which led PCC Simon Foster to question whether the results are worth the reputational damage done to the force.

Latest figures show in the year to March 2022, black people were 4.4 times more likely to be stopped and searched and Asian people 2.7 times more likely than white people in the West Midlands.

Twelve months earlier the figure was 3.9 for black people and 2.6 for Asian people.

The pandemic and associated fall in crime during 2020 and 2021 may have had some impact on the figures.

Mr Foster describes stop and search as an “appropriate and necessary power to detect and investigate crime” but insists it must be used “effectively and efficiently”, and that action to address disproportionality must be taken “as a matter of urgency”.

But he accepts West Midlands Police had been making progress on the disproportionality prior to the latest set of figures.

He told a Strategic Policing and Crime Board meeting: “I have had regard to the disproportionality figures set out in the report. I am pleased action is being taken to address this.

“For example, I welcome the requirement that all searches conducted on black males between 18 and 34 years old are to be subject to a supervisor review of the body worn video footage.

“However, I am disappointed to see that, despite the work West Midlands Police has been carrying out as part of the Fairness and Belonging

Strategy, disproportionality has deteriorated, rather than improved.

“I will be working with West Midlands Police to identify what action needs to be taken to remedy this as a matter of urgency.”

Chief Constable Sir Dave Thompson said: “I think we can explain some of it.

“If we look at where ethnic minorities live, if rates of crime are more active in these areas, we are searching more.

“That is a partial explanation. The challenge is what we’re searching and if we’re searching at the right times of day. It’s important at force level we set out clearly what we’re doing right and what we’re not.”

Chief Superintendent Richard North said body worn cameras offered the “greatest opportunity in our history” to ensure accountability around stop and search, allowing the public to “see what we do and how we do it” and show “both sides of the encounter”.

He said: “We know we can do things that are legally acceptable but still cause a lot of harm.”

He added: “We’ve got this objective opportunity to have a look at what happened.”

If we look at where ethnic minorities live, if rates of crime are more active in these areas, we are searching more. Chief Constable Sir Dave Thompson