Haringey Stop & Search: The Race Debate

“The first time I was stopped and searched, I was 11. I didn’t understand. I grew up thinking you better not do anything wrong because you can get arrested. You grow up with this fear of the police. As soon as I got a car… I remember getting stopped four times in one week. That’s when it really made me hate the police”. Michael Jenkins, an established film maker within his community and director at 8th Sense Media in Bristol, shares his experience.

Commissioned by the Avon and Somerset police force to make a film for their officers, Michael’s documentary shows, “new recruits of how stop and search, when done disproportionately, can affect certain communities, in particular black males”. Michael says, “I’d stopped speaking to this chief inspector and he gave me permission to film outside. A copper came up to me… he asked if I was doing anything illegal. It just highlighted the issue with me being paid by the police to make a film for them and… I am still looked at suspiciously”.

In January, this year the Metropolitan Police figures show that 52 stop and searches were carried out and In February, 153 crimes were reported in Haringey, London. Police UK illustrates: ‘Of the 65,875 stop and searches conducted between August 2017 and January 2018, 20,547 (31.19%) had a police outcome, and 45,328 (68.81%) had no further action taken.’ In Haringey, the number of stop and search cases alongside the ratio of black people targeted has risen.

Source: Pixabay

Ken Hinds, chair of the ‘Haringey Independent Stop and Search Monitoring Group’ (HISSMG) believes stop and searches are unreasonably carried out in Haringey. Ken says: “I do my outreach… and give them [young people] information. People can ring me up if they feel they got violated by the police. I will go to court and get solicitors. New police recruits, in the last 4-5 years in Haringey, have to spend 1-2 hours with me so they can get from my perspective what’s expected of them on the road”.

During the early 2000s, HISSMG statistics show that Haringey had a 4:1 ratio of black to white people being stopped and searched. However, with the groups effort the number decreased to 2:1 in 2014-2015. Ken says, “The figure now, has jumped to about 5:1. I believe black young men are more likely to be targeted because it’s done by design. Stop and search has come out of a racist law in 1984, called the ‘Sus Law’. Years later we are still disproportionally affected. So why, in 34 years… and in 2018 are they talking about extending that power”.

Chief Inspector Dayle Speed, who looks after Haringey’s Neighbourhood Policing says, “Stop and search… is a means in which we will carry out enforcement. The rules form a part of the grounds that officers should explain on every occasion. Section 60 is another authority, when you don’t require the grounds that you would do for a normal search and under ‘PACE’ the ‘Section 1 Police and Criminal Evidence Act’”.

In the debate of whether stop and search undergoes racism, Dayle says: “I have 20 years of policing experience but I’ve never encountered an incident where a colleague has been racist. That doesn’t mean to say that racism isn’t proviolent. There will always be viewpoints where we are getting it wrong and I think we should always listen”.

Data gathered by Ken shows that as a black man, a person is ‘six times more likely to be stopped and searched’, ‘18-20 times more likely to be stopped and searched because of the smell of cannabis’, and ‘37 times more likely to be stopped and searched under section 60 as opposed to 6 times under section 1’.

A frequent reason for stop and search is Cannabis, Ken says: “Its alienating young people who have got no respect for the police now. I’m in favour of community led, intelligence stop and search… if you’re targeting violent offenders and getting knives and guns off our street but criminalising our young people for a bit of weed? That’s Outrageous!”

Since September 2017, Police UK shows that Haringey ranks second after Hackney, as the borough with the most crime across similar areas in London. Haringey has a 105.80% crime rate compared to the lowest figure 72.85% in borough, Enfield. Although all boroughs in London should have an independent monitoring group, Ken says, “I know for a fact that Enfield hasn’t”.

In response, Dayle Speed says: “I tend the central stop search monitoring network group, and that has representation from what I understand is, all boroughs. Every borough should have that… and its independent nature is important because… it holds that borough to account for its stop and search practices. Haringey and Enfield are merging their policing operations. If Enfield is lacking, there’s an opportunity to expand”.

Dayle says with HISSMG, “We try to be transparent. We meet around every 2-3 months. They feedback concerns of the community”. When asking if HISSMG are useful, Dayle says: “I would go one step further and say… it’s essential for the building and maintenance of good community relations. It’s really important… because if it’s [stop and search] done wrong it’s one of the biggest ways we can erode trust and confidence in the communities”.

However, Ken says, “For too long the police has been using the engagement with our monitoring group as a tick box exercise. They are mandated to talk to independent groups but they are not mandated to follow anything up from those conversations.”

In response to the government, Ken says, “They are going to extend stop and search. They said that they have consulted community leaders in areas affected by violence. Nowhere is more affected than Haringey… in the fifteen years of me doing this work they have never invited me to one of those meetings. I have reached out to other community activists here and they also haven’t been invited”.