The Met has almost halved its use of stop and search and increased arrest rates. Our report looks at if this is having an impact on community relations and makes recommendations for further improvements.

1. Photo credit: Janine Wiedel/ REX
Stop and search
An investigation by the Police and Crime Committee

2. “I feel angry because I haven’t
done anything bad so I think
‘why’s the police officer picking
on me?’ And I’ve done good
stuff for the community.”
Participant in stop and search focus groups
1
Stop and search allows the police to search people for evidence they are committing
a crime, such as weapons, drugs or stolen property.
Stop and search has a difficult history and is causes tension between the Met police
and some Londoners. This affects the police’s ability to do their job.

3. “When I arrived, one
of the things I said I
was concerned
about was stop
search. I thought we
could probably do
less and be more
effective. That is
what we hope we
have been able to
prove.”
Sir Bernard HoganHowe, Commissioner, Metr
opolitan Police
2
The Met has introduced a new approach to stop and search known as StopIt.
The Commissioner wants stop and search to be focused on tackling serious crimes. It
means that searches should be based on better intelligence, making it better
targeted on those who are committing crimes.

4. The number of searches has fallen, while arrest rates have risen
Number of searches per month (PACE)
3
Stop & search arrest rate (%)
Nov-13
Oct-13
0%
Sep-13
0
Aug-13
2%
Jul-13
5,000
Jun-13
4%
May-13
10,000
Apr-13
6%
Mar-13
15,000
Feb-13
8%
Jan-13
20,000
Dec-12
10%
Nov-12
25,000
Oct-12
12%
Sep-12
30,000
Aug-12
14%
Jul-12
35,000
Jun-12
16%
May-12
40,000
Apr-12
18%
Mar-12
45,000
Feb-12
20%
Jan-12
50,000
“They’ve gone
about it the right
way: they’ve cut
down the
amount of
people that they
stop and search,
it’s not obviously
as frequent, and
they only do it
when they need
to do it.”
Participant in stop
and search focus
groups
It is now carrying out fewer searches but the ones they do are more effective. The
total number of stops has fallen by over 40% in two years and 15% of people that are
searched are arrested.

5. “I’m still quite sceptical, to be
honest… I think some of
these figures, I don’t quite
believe them, really.”
Participant in stop and search focus groups
4
The police are meant to record every stop they make. Anything less than full recording
is a failure but the Met knows that this doesn’t always happen. The public need to be
confident that this is happening or the Met may undermine the progress it is making.

6. “They just say ‘you're
in a drug infested area
and you've got a hood
on so we're stopping
and searching you.'”
Participant in stop and search
focus groups
5
Some Met officers continue to stereotype and therefore aren’t following the rules
about when they can stop and search people. The Mayor must work with the Met to
make sure officers are held to account for how they use their powers.

7. “I’m not saying
all police
officers are
disrespectful, b
ut you get the
ones, around
here you get
the ones most
of the time
who are
disrespectful”
Participant in stop
and search focus
groups
6
Some officers sidestep people’s rights when they are stopped and searched. The
Mayor and Met leaders must show that they expect police officers to respect these
rights and should do more to build these into the Met’s processes.

8. “Making a complaint against the police is very difficult… I think
there is not a willingness to go forward through the complaints
procedure or any trust or faith in the complaints procedure.”
Estelle du Boulay, Newham Monitoring Project
7
The complaints system does not work for stop and search. The Met wants and needs
public feedback if it is to improve. The Mayor needs to support the Met to get more
information from the public so that the Met can learn from complaints.

9. “It shows that the police are really
working their backsides off to get better
relationships with young people and
people in the community. They don't
want to be hated, because they’ve had a
lot of hate towards them but now they
really want to change that.”
Participant in stop and search focus groups
8
Many young people are impressed when they see the changes that the Met has
achieved. But the Met needs to work more effectively with young people to and do
more to tell the community what it is doing to make stop and search better.

10. 9
Recent events show that some parts of the community still don’t trust the police.
Turning the tide will be challenging and requires the Met to keep going with efforts to
improve stop and search.
For more details about all of the recommendations in our report please visit: www.london.gov.uk/assembly