Stop and search under scrutiny
A group of young people stopped and searched by police officers were filmed and asked to ‘give us a twirl’, claims a councillor.
Calderdale scrutiny councillors were debating children’s safeguarding when Coun Mohammed Shazad Fazal raised the issue.
Coun Fazal (Lab, Park) said there had been two occasions when a group of young people had been stopped by police officers when they “had not done anything wrong.”
“On one occasion the officers made a video film of the lads and asked them to ‘do a twirl’ – is that the standard practice?" he said.
Coun Fazal said the story had shocked him and he advised them that if any officer did this to get their badge number and a superior officer’s details and he would try and investigate what had happened.
“So what’s the situation in terms of searching young lads for no apparent reason?” he said.
Supt Mick Brown, of Calderdale Police, told councillors he could not speak about any individual incidents, because
he did not know the full circumstances.
But he insisted in respect of searching any person, particularly young people, the police had certain grounds that had to be there.
“My officers should be quite clearly outlining to any member of the public that they are stopping and searching on those grounds.
“All our officers wear body video at all times, so if you have any concerns regarding individual issues, then any interaction will be recorded so we can view it and make sure our officers have acted lawfully, with decent manners and in an appropriate fashion.
“I know you mentioned a ‘twirl’ – that doesn’t appear like something that should be taking place if I’m being entirely honest with you,” he said.
Supt Brown said he could assure the children and young people’s services scrutiny board in respect of stop and search that the vast majority of stop and searches are reviewed by a supervisor.
Additionally, the police’s continuous improvement team could undertake random checks of stop and searches where they watched the body cam video to make sure the grounds were appropriate, that officers’ behaviour was appropriate, to learn, and to make sure officers were only doing what they should be doing within the laws of the land, added Supt Brown.