Page 31 - JUSTICE Tackling Racial Injustice - Children and the Youth Justice System

2.21 By prioritising de-escalation, police officers can ensure that incidents remain
calm and avoid the risk of traumatising the children they have stopped. Not
only will this contribute to a child being more open to being searched, it will
reduce the likelihood of children having a negative experience, as well as the
risk of unnecessarily punitive outcomes. For this behaviour to become
embedded, training must focus on the quality of the interaction, underpinned
by solid, justifiable reasons for the interaction.

2.22 In the Working Party’s view, the lack of accountability for the disproportionate
use of stop and search has resulted in negative - and sometimes traumatic –
experiences for BAME individuals. If police officers were more cognisant of,
and expected to acknowledge, the impact of a stop and search, it could help to
reduce the negative, and sometimes traumatic, experiences that BAME people
have, and lead to more cooperative searches and improved relationships in the
future. More than this, the police should be held to account for discriminatory
practices when individuals are stopped on suspicion of crime without objective
grounds for doing so.

2.23 At present, there is no consistent recording of age, with different age brackets
used by different forces. We understand that the majority of forces record self-
defined ethnicity, and if a suspect refuses to state their identity, officers may
record either the perceived ethnicity or, less helpfully, select ‘unknown/not
stated’. To instil self-reflection, and ensure that the police act in
accordance with the law, we recommend that 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 of the
person stopped, where possible. This would build on the requirements of
79
PACE Code A and make it possible to effectively monitor the legality of
stops and research best practice, with a view to producing learning to
improve stop and search interactions.

79 ‘Recording Requirements’, PACE Code A, para 4.

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