News and opinion

Down to improvements in recording techniques, say statisticians

On the police treatment of Duwayne Brooks, who was with Stephen Lawrence the night he was murdered, and whether new police accountability proposals would work in Brooks's favour

Report argues for scrapping the controversial search power on human rights grounds

Talks held in both London and Bristol discussing controversial stop and search power

First strategy day held since pandemic to discuss changes in stop and search policy

Black people are subject to two thirds of Knife Crime Prevention Orders, despite representing only 4% of the population. Yet the Home Office has ‘no clear assessment’ of their impact and effectiveness on levels of crime

Event hosted by Harehills Action Team, Racial Justice Network, and StopWatch

Home Office figures show a sharp rise in section 60 searches but no positive impact on outcomes from it

An analysis of the white racial ideology of the British police.

StopWatch members' article published in Political Quarterly journal

Why and how should the government and local authorities focus more on addressing the structural causes of anti-social behaviour?

On the latest report by His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary and why the culture inside the police force has enabled systematic failures to endure.

Josie Appleton of Manifesto Club on how the police are not held to the same child safeguarding and welfare standards in place in other institutional settings

For the first time in 14 years, both the Labour and Conservative manifestos do not mention stop and search. By the looks of the leading party’s election campaigns, the only stop to stop and search on the horizon is by name.

Four years following the inappropriate strip searching of Child Q and two years since the investigation, how have public authorities responded?

A brief analysis of latest dataset on police use of terrorism stop and search powers

Enduring concerns regarding the social control of young people in Scotland

The Met commissioner’s response to the Hainault sword attack overlooks real safety concerns of young Black Londoners

StopWatch reviews Channel 4's new series To Catch a Copper

StopWatch looks at the Centre for Social Justice's report 'Serious violence in London'

Assembly Member Caroline Russell pens letter to the Met leadership; StopWatch issues statement

Montell Neufville explains the role of a community scrutiny panel which covers three police force areas

Abridged version posted on the Justice Gap website

Police ethics advisor Montell Neufville who has received 18 policing awards for influencing policing for good gives his views on the HMIC, IOPC, and College of policing response to the super complaint

The Criminal Justice Alliance were right the first time; section 60 does more harm than good

Statisticians put increases in incidents down to improved recording practices; racial disparities persist

Six months on from the launch of the controversial SVROs, what have we learnt so far?

Home Office forced to release Equality Impact Assessment for section 60 stops by StopWatch and Liberty. Tribunal calls Home Office ‘disingenuous’ for refusing to disclose the assessment in the first place

A disciplinary tribunal has found two Met officers guilty of gross misconduct over their treatment of Black athletes Ricardo dos Santos and Bianca Williams during a stop and search in 2020.

In this post, Montell Neufville looks at police community scrutiny panels and outlines 'PLANTER', an acronym used to help panels evaluate use of force incidents

An update on our research project on Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs)

Yvette Cooper’s proposal of a new 'Respect Order' hints at the future of policing under a Labour government. StopWatch member Ella Thomson examines what this might look like

Little change in stop search data trends; importance of ethnic disparities downplayed

Mainstream discourse on police numbers neglects to ask if the officers recruited are any good?

StopWatch, in coalition with Runnymede Trust and 24 other racial justice organisations, calls out Met commissioner Mark Rowley's 'A New Met for London' plan

All you need to know about stop and search powers under the new legislation

StopWatch volunteer Ella Ticktin-Smith considers the new stop and search powers conferred by the Public Order Act

StopWatch volunteer Corey Campbell reflects on the Supreme Court's ruling in the 'officer W80 case'

Judges also call for clarity over police code of ethics

Independent scrutiny panel for Beds, Herts, and Cambs highlights successes

Interactive tracker displays data for every police force in England and Wales

Police force lies about its involvement in the deaths of two teenage boys, gets found out. All in a day’s work. But why do the media have to be complicit?

With a focus on the use of private technology companies and operational procedures, PhD researcher Tyler Dadge highlights several key questions that are yet to be answered concerning the police's use of facial recognition, and argues that algorithmic accuracy is just one issue amongst many when it comes to police use of this tech

The backlash to the Casey Review's central finding indicates a denial of the realities and experiences of the people impacted by police discrimination going back decades

A coalition of human rights groups has raised concerns about the piloting of Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) which give new stop-and-search powers to police forces

On Serious Violence Reduction Orders: what are they, what additional powers do they give police officers, and why might these new civil orders end up doing more harm than good

In autumn 2022, following a landmark court case, the Met agreed to a 'wholesale change' of their database. Shaquille Scott-Davis wonders what this means and whether this is happening at all

Police forces across the country are about to receive yet another income boost to their coffers, but with the mushrooming of scandals and institutional rot, many taxpayers must be wondering 'what for'?

Ella Thomson compares the findings of a research paper that suggests police searches may produce more harm than good with the new Met chief's latest data-driven intentions for fighting crime

The new Met chief's big data obsession risks overlooking long-standing concerns from Londoners about police culture and conduct

As the pandemic effect recedes, 2022 figures highlight something many minoritised communities knew at the time: the oppressive nature of lockdown policing

Police officers more frequently stop and search members of the public in neighbourhoods where well-off and economically precarious people co-exist. Joel H. Suss and Thiago R. Oliveira show that this pattern holds up even when accounting for other important factors, such as previous local crime rates and a neighbourhood’s ethnic makeup. Although the evidence is that stop and search activity does little to reduce crime, the police persist with the practice in order to maintain social order

In this article, StopWatch volunteer Ella discusses Priti Patel's new drugs policy white paper and its implications for stop and search practices.

As the Met appoints a new commissioner, former police officer Chantelle Lunt argues that unless all police forces across England and Wales adopt a new model of policing, the people should #withdrawconsent

Sydney Kirton describes the London team's trip to the Houses of Parliament to present the latest findings from the women and girls research project

Describing drill as ‘gang-related music’ that ostensibly encourages serious violence is deeply problematic, argues Dr Lambros Fatsis

Sydney provides a moving testament of how the girls' research project process has affected her perceptions of policing

Home sec threatens to turn back time by rolling section 60 restrictions back to the 1990s, but fails to appreciate things have changed

New crime data remind us that fraud is bigger than knife and drug-related crime ever was… not that you would know it from media coverage, argues Eugene K

In the second of a series of articles on the little known policing tactic, Shaquille Scott-Davis explores the impact of Project Servator on our way of life

Shaquille Scott-Davis looks into the operations of a police patrol you may have noticed around a lot in the last 5 years, but probably know very little about

Sydney recounts the beginnings of an exciting new project

Chair Montell Neufville steps down after 5 years, cites successes of the system

New Home Office dataset shows rise in overall stop and searches, but masks a complex story of moral panic towards young people, especially of colour

Why does our law-and-orders government want to equate nuisance with terrorism?

It is in the interest of police forces themselves to help form effective community scrutiny panels/monitoring groups in their areas, argues Bedfordshire Police Community Scrutiny Panel vice chair

Georgia-Mae Chung describes how Suffolk Stop and Search Community Reference Group scrutinize stop and searches conducted by Suffolk police officers and how the group navigated the difficulties caused by the pandemic

Falls in section 43 and Schedule 7 stops under the Terrorism Act 2000 caused by multiple lockdown measures imposed during pandemic outbreak

Reading into 35 years of data, it doesn't take a detective to work why stop and search powers are being used disproportionately

Is Sir Stephen House the biggest threat to Black Londoners' safety?

Police say ‘we want more powers’, home sec asks ‘how many’?

Consultation on plans to allow police to stop and search those previously convicted of knife crime offences without suspicion

New data finds Black people stopped and searched 9 times more than White people in England and Wales

Where is the monument to our fallen at the hands of police brutality?

Psychotherapist and director of London Counsellors, Sabrina Williams, talks about the trauma of recent events, and how constant viewing of violent images and videos can impact us

By Samar Khan, member of StopWatch's research and policy group

Given the level of service some of us get from them these days, I’d like my money back, says Eugene K

The story of Dwayne Francis's distressing and unnecessary police stop, told in full

Dr Adam Elliott-Cooper dissects the racist assumptions and language of a recent article on community policing

Arbitrary enforcement behaviour during the lockdown risks eroding our faith in the force

Statement responds to new legislation

Controversial database trimmed down in face of mounting pressure from campaign groups and data watchdog

We saw it coming, but how far will facial recognition affect stop and search?

Video looks at various aspects of the controversial police power

How a fair and effective scrutiny of stop and searches leads to more equitable outcomes

Between Home Office stats and Equality Impact Assessments, the effectiveness of stop and search is waning

New data finds Black people stopped and searched 10 times more than White people in England and Wales

Covered in the Metro

We are crowdfunding to assist a nurse that was arrested as a result of a stop and search

Watch StopWatch UK chief executive Katrina Ffrench explain the procedure on BBC Newsbeat

Government accused of failing to evaluate the pilot scheme

Comedian Jacob Hawley interviewed Dr Michael Shiner about stop and search as part of his podcast

Section 60 stop and searches offer 'no solution to the social problems underlying serious youth violence in the UK'

Met chief makes false claim about meeting regularly with StopWatch; spokesperson says sorry for giving a 'contrary impression'

If you are surprised by the latest expansion in the scope of section 60 legislation, don't be

Stop and search is just another police tactic that will entrench already deep divisions between Black communities and the police

Katrina Ffrench speaks to Tiernan Douieb about standards of policing in the UK

You can now catch up with The London School of Economics podcast discussion of the seminal report The Colour of Injustice.

We are delighted to announce that the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has provided Stopwatch with a grant!

Research finds that there is little clarity on the legality of seizing mobile phones during stop and search encounters