Page 107 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

Recommendations

1. The Ministry of Justice should both collect and make available all data that is
necessary to fully assess disproportionality in the criminal justice systems
(para 1.15).

Suspicion of BAME children

Stop and Search

2. All police forces should take steps to implement the 11 recommendations made
by the Independent Office for Police Conduct to the Metropolitan Police
Service on how to improve stop and search (para 2.13).

3. The Home Office should launch a review on the use of force, and specifically
tasers, on children, BAME people and those with mental health difficulties
(para 2.18).

4. Police forces must prioritise a return toward neighbourhood policing (para
2.19).

5. Territorial Support Group officers should undergo specific de-escalation
training (para 2.20).

6. Police officers, as a matter of course, should thank individuals stopped for their
cooperation and acknowledge the inconvenience caused, where such stop
resulted in no further action. To instil self-reflection, and ensure that the police
act in accordance with the law, stop records should include what activity was
suspected, what was found, what the outcome was, and most importantly, both
the ‘perceived’ and self-defined ethnicities, where possible (para 2.20 and
2.23).

7. PACE Codes should be amended to clarify what a genuine suspicion entails,
including that the smell of cannabis alone cannot be grounds for suspicion
(para 2.26).

8. Police officers should always prioritise the welfare of the child (such as
utilising diversion and deferred-prosecution schemes) over punitive responses
through the criminal justice system (para 2.28).

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