It’s been almost two years since the Metropolitan Police was severely criticised by the Casey Review for “over-policing and under-protecting” Black Londoners, said the BBC. Now, the force has come up with a new charter which aims to strengthen and improve the use of its controversial stop and search powers.
More than 8,500 Londoners of all ages and ethnicities were involved in the new charter, which was put together over the past 18 months. Surveys and events were held in each of the capital’s 32 boroughs, and around 80 young people were invited to New Scotland Yard to work on the new proposals.
What is stop and search?
Stop and search has been used as a policing tool since the Vagrancy Act of 1824, but has attracted criticism more recently for being ineffective and for disproportionately targeting Black people and those from an ethnic minority background. It allows officers to detain a person without arresting them if they believe they have reasonable grounds to suspect that an unlawful item, such as weapons, drugs or stolen goods, is being carried.
There is another category of stop and search, often referred to as a section 60, which requires police officers to only “reasonably believe” that a serious crime “may” be carried out.
Does it work?
The Met has defended stop and search, arguing that it saves lives. In the last four years, 17,500 weapons were seized as a result, with 3,500 in 2024 alone. According to the force, up to 68% of Londoners, including young people, support its use, while the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has described it as a “vital policing tool”.
However, when implemented badly, it has the potential to “burn through trust with those we are here to protect”, said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan, who leads the new project, in London’s The Standard.
Davarel Gordon told the BBC he was around 12 when he was first stopped by police. “The first time it happens you’re in shock,” he said. “There wasn’t any communication, I didn’t understand what was going on.”
Stop and search has been described as a “rite of passage” for Black boys in the capital, according to Sky News. Last year a police watchdog said two officers committed misconduct when they handcuffed and restrained a 14-year-old Black schoolboy in a case of mistaken identity during a stop and search in Croydon.
In December 2020, a 15-year-old Black schoolgirl, known as Child Q, was wrongly accused of having drugs, and was strip-searched while on her period by female officers, without an appropriate adult present. Three officers will face gross misconduct proceedings later this year.
What’s the current situation in the capital?
In London 53% of fatal stab victims and 45% of offenders in 2023 were Black. Black people represent 13.5% of the city’s population. Black men aged 18 to 20 made up the majority of those caught with knives.
Yet such is the controversy surrounding stop and search that some officers are hesitant to use it for fear that inadvertent misuse could be career-ending. Despite an increase in knife crime in the capital, the number of stop and searches in London fell 17% to 120,783 in the year to January 2025, according to The Times. Black people accounted for 40% of those searched.
What does the charter say?
The charter includes new commitments around the communication and tone that police use during stop and search, and improved training for officers, so that they can better understand and serve their communities. There will be a more robust supervision process, with more regular and random reviews of how the new system is working, and better handling of complaints, which will involve local communities to avoid internal bias.
Feedback from the public found that the police need to be “less aggressive” and that the tactic needed to be more targeted and tailored to avoid “embarrassment and trauma”, which the Met says it has taken on board.
What’s the reaction?
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan has said that the scope of the new charter involving the participation of so many Londoners means that lives will be saved. “We went wherever people would talk to us, and we went to knock on doors that we knew people didn’t really want to speak to us in some organisations, and we consulted with those people,” he told the BBC.
There is tentative optimism that the new charter will have the desired results. Gordon told the BBC that despite his experience, he still supports stop and search and hopes that the new charter will mean improved aftercare and empathy for those wrongly implicated. “There’s not enough of that. They need to remember we are people. Just make sure the person is OK.”