Stop and Account

in

A number of police forces, especially those that target the Black community, will no longer record the race of those stopped under Stop and Account.

Five of the 10 forces most likely to stop Black people under the power don't record the ethnicity of those stopped under the powers. Stop and Account allows the police to stop anyone in a public place and ask individuals to account for your actions, behaviour, presence in an area or possession of anything. Those stopped do not have to give personal information.

Forces including West Midlands, Avon and Somerset, Thames Valley, Sussex and Hertfordshire have enforced the Home Office's change in March which no longer requires officers to record stop and account, which they claim will reduce police bureaucracy and save police time.

According to statistics, West Midlands force is seven times more likely to stop and African Caribbean person than a White person. But they, along with 21 out of 43 forces in England and Wales will stop recording details though all forces will continue recording the ethnicity of those stopped under stop and search powers.

Analysts such as Dr Michael Shiner of the London School of Economics believes that some of the figures which shows a disproportionately high number of Black people being stopped under these powers is a source of embarrassment for some forces.

"Getting rid of recording may relieve the embarrassment but prevents us from dealing with the problem."

But the claim that police forces are trying to hide embarrassing facts has been disputed by Craig Mackey, who leads for the Association of Chief Police Officers on stop-and-search issues,

"The premise that somehow forces chose to discontinue the recording of ethnicity as part of stop and account on the basis of hiding some sort of practice, there is absolutely no evidence of that whatsoever."

While the government is looking at ways to reduce paperwork for the police, their changes are a major concern to many, with even the United Nations raising concern and condemning the changes.

A report from the UN committee on elimination of racial discrimination said,

"The committee is concerned that these measures may not only encourage racial and ethnic stereotyping by police officers but may also encourage impunity and fail to promote accountability in the police service for possible abuses."

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