Community Scrutiny Panel - meeting minutes - May 2022

Date: 26 May 2022

Time: 6pm to 8.30pm

Venue: Microsoft Teams

Attendees: Hina Shafi (HS), Natasha Clewley (NC), Myrna Loy (ML), Loveness Bishi (LB), Aisha Sana (AS) and Alice Burlington – IOPC (AB) and Phil Dickson-Earle (PD).

Bedfordshire Police: Karanjit Sanghera (KS) and Ommer Khan (OK)

OPCC Office: Anna Villette (AV) and Simon Powell (SP)

Observers
Eric Young – Inspector for HMIC FOS (EY)

Apologies: Katie Beaumont (KB) and Ian Taylor (IT)

Abbreviation:

• DP = Detained person

Welcome, Introductions and Apologies

AV introduced herself an advised that she is the Interim Chief Executive of the OPCC. AV advised that the OPCC is independent of the Police, specialist Boards such as this one fall under the umbrella from the OPCC to help to organise, we do not run this meeting and there is a separate independent chair in place. KB who is the Head of Transparency and Governance for the OPCC has been organising training for Panel members and she will be sending out other dates for this. If there is any other training you feel you may benefit from, let KB know and she will look into organising this.

AV thanked HS for stepping into the role of Chair of this Board, we have said goodbye to Montel who was the previous chair and we are now saying hello to Natasha who will be taking over as Chair. Once training has taken place this weekend HS will be passing over the role of Chair to Natasha. We have also been introducing Panel members to a little bit of time in the Force Control Room which has been beneficial to those who have attended. It is good to get to know the other areas of Policing and the feedback we have received has been really worthwhile.
NC introduced herself to the Panel members.

HS advised that during the meeting today we will be looking into Go Wisely and asked everyone to keep this in mind when voting.     

Confidentiality

All have been sent the document.

Minutes of last meeting with matters arising and action points:        

The minutes of the previous meeting were discussed and agreed.
The Actions were discussed and updated in the table below.

Policing context

N/A.

Chairs Introduction:

No concerns raised

Deputy Chair Update:

No concerns raised

Report back from S&S Sub Group:

KS shared that there has been a change within the Chairs and a lot of reviews have been carried out in a short space of time. In regards to Sub Panels, 8 reviews have been completed – 3 were graded Green 3, 2 were graded Green 2 and 3 were graded Green 1.

Report back from Use of Force Sub Group:

KS updated the Use of Panel took place at the start of the month, during the meeting 4 uses of force were reviewed – 2 were graded Green 3, 1 was graded Green 1, these were feedback to the Officers and 1 was graded Red 8 and Panel decided they wanted that to be dealt with by the Inspector and forwarded on to PSD which has been done, the feedback from the outcome has not yet been received. Feedback will be provided at the next meeting.

Vice Chair; Reasonable grounds, GOWISLEY & RAG:

No concerns raised                                                        

BW video 1

The subject of this stop and search is a male from Luton. All advised they do not know this person. The grounds given from this stop and search are ‘a message had come via town centre radio that a male had attempted to steal items from Primark and then run off. On Police arrival I can see two security guards running after a male, this male was detained and ID’d as the male that attempted the theft in Primark’. Section 1 PACE search.
BL reported that Go Wisely was followed, no issues with use of force and it was conducted professionally.
AS felt that when the Officer said ‘huh huh’ would this be professional? HS advised that this could be as they could not hear properly due to the noise of the traffic and this was them trying to clarify what was said.
Voting was completed via the link provided in the group chat;
Green 1, 2 votes
Green 2, 1 vote
Green 3, 1 vote

BW video 2

The subject of the stop and search is a male from Bedford, all advised they do not know this person. The grounds for the search are ‘current intelligence linking the subject to active robberies in the areas where suspects have intimated they have knives’. Section1 PACE search.
HS asked why the Officer was unable to say when the robberies took place when he was asked? KS advised that there is no obligation for Officer to say when the robbery was.

ML stated that if the Officer had said when the robbery took place, the individual may have had an alibi or could have been out of the country. HS will provide in the feedback that the Officer was unable to provide when the incident took place and why was that?

PD asked if anything was found from the search, KS advised that nothing was found but in terms of voting this is based on the body worn footage. PD felt that the Officer may not have fully completed Go Wisely however he did attempt to do it. PD asked how recent the intelligence was and wants to explore further the legitimacy of the stop. We are looking for legitimate stop and searches and wants to be clear that they were stopped for the right reasons. PD fed back that the Officer was very professional and did not react to the barrage of abuse he was receiving.
HS fed back that the Officer did go through Go Wisely however he was interrupted a couple of times due to the individual becoming agitated and swearing.

NC asked if there are any other indicators that can be included in the forms that gives officers to prompts to capture and make sure everything is done correctly? KS advised that at the moment, the way it is done is a free text to put in their grounds for the stop as everyone writes in a different way. We ask all Officers to be very thorough on the forms and mindful about what they are writing.

Feedback to be provided that it wasn’t clear what the rationale on the search was.

ML advised that both individuals looked ominous and as if they were up to no good, even though they should not be judged on how they look or how they are dressed, it doesn’t help them as it is drawing attention to them.

HS advised MW prepared a Suspicion Test Document for panel members and will recirculate this to everyone.
Action: HS to send Suspicion Test Document to panel members.

Voting was completed via the link provided in the group chat;
Green 1, 1 vote
Green 3, 1 vote
Amber 4 – 2 votes
Red 7, 1 vote

KS advised that he would like to see a bit more information on the grounds and this will be fed back.

BW Video 3

The subject of the stop and search is a male from Bedford, all advised that they did not know this person. The grounds given by the Officer are ‘male was suspected of being on a building site of new homes. When approached by Security and Police the male and his friend ran off in opposite directions. When stopped, the male and his friend were dirty and had dust all over their clothes and hands. A Section 1 PACE search conducted.

LB advised that she did not hear the name of the Station as the Officers were going through Go Wisely, other than that, everything else was okay.
AS handled the situation very well.

PD shared that he did not hear the Officer giving her details.

HS advised that as two things are missing from Go Wisely, voting would come under the Amber category.

Voting was completed via the link provided in the group chat;
Amber 5, 3 votes
Amber 4, 2 votes
KS advised that he did not hear the Officer providing her collar number or station number.
All agreed that they were happy with the Officers manner.

BW Video 4:

The subject of the stop and search is a male from Clifton, Central Bedfordshire, all agreed that they did not know this person. The grounds for this search are ‘Vehicle was brought to Police attention due to erratic manner of driving at excess speed and not indicating at junctions.

Police have stopped the vehicle and spoke to the driver on Church Street in Clifton. Information was received from the Local Community Policing Team that the male is involved in the supply of drugs in the Clifton area. Further intelligence checks on Police systems showed recent intelligence from January 2022 to suggested that the male is involved in the supply of drugs in the Clifton area. Section 23 Misuse of Drugs Act.

ML advised that she understood the persons frustration, in that position how much credence does the intelligence have as it almost seems that people can be stopped and searched for no reason. The Officers handled it very well, very patient and professional. It is nice to see the transparency and improvement in the Officers method of search.

PD advised the initial was understandable due to speeding etc, they then carried out additional checks and then both Officers managed the situation very well by de-escalating the situation.

All agreed the Officers conducted the search very well and the paperwork submitted was exemplary.

LB advised that she did not feel that Go Wisely was fully completed and feels that it was delayed. The original stop was due to a driving offence which led into the stop and search. HS advised that she did not feel we heard the identify of the officers or the Station.

Voting was completed via the link provided in the group chat;

Green 3, 2 votes
Amber 4, 2 votes
Amber 5, 1 vote

HS advised we will go with Amber 4 and all were in agreement.

KS mentioned that he feels that he caught all of the Go Wisely, OK also confirmed this.

The recording was re-listened to as it was not clear to Panel members that Go Wisely was fully discussed. As voting has already taken place the original votes will remain and there is no reason to re-vote. All were in agreement that the Officer went through Go Wisely.

HS asked if it would be possible to get transcripts of stop and searches? KS advised that transcripts is available on Teams and said that this could be trialled before the next meeting. KS will advise that the votes were made before the video was rewatched as it was not clear the first time if Go Wisely had been completed.

The Panel asked KS what it takes for a marker to be removed for instance if a person has been stopped a number of times and drugs have not been found? KS advised that a marker should not be on endlessly and there would be a time limit that is put on, it may come up on the intelligence when an Officer is speaking Control that there was a previous marker on that person/vehicle, it is then for the Officer to determine how long ago it was. Usually after 2 months time if there have been no further incidents involving that vehicle that marker should be taken off as its not right to keep the marker on and continually stopping that vehicle. There should be a time frame and is for the Officer to review it.

Action: KS to find out how many times the man from Video 4 has been stopped by Police.

Stop & Search data

KS went through the data pack for Quarter 4. KS suggested for a sub panel to be arranged that looks at the data in more detail such as hot spot areas

Ethnicity, PD asked regarding ‘not stated – 219’ is that due to being Officer defined? KS advised that this is what was self-defined by the individual.
NC suggested that it would be helpful to have national data comparisons to see the national averages as this would help for us to see where we are. KS advised that he will speak to the analysts to see if this is something they can provide.

HS thanked the team for putting the charts together and advised they are much easier to read now they have been colour coded.
KS advised that stop and search and use of force are both now on the TuSurv system.

KS shared that one of the main questions asked if, with the number of stop and searches that are carried out, why is there such a high number of no further action. KS advised that this is being looked into further however Beds Police do still have a high number of actions taken following the search compared to other Forces.

All were in agreement that the data looks better in the way it is now being presented. Suggestion for a map to be included within the data sets to show the areas of the stop and searches and to also be broken down into gender.

HS suggested for the next sub group panel to be focussed on Bedford Borough in relation to disproportionality ratios by CSP and go videos.

Top searching officer deep dive in sub panel for Officers.

The data pack has been included with the meeting papers.

PSD referrals and outcomes:

N/A

Any Stop and Search Issues in the Community:

N/A.

AOB & Date of next meeting to be advised

AV advised that the NPCC launched their Action Plan this week, if anyone would like a link to the commentary that has been put out by the Police Crime Commissioner and Chief Constable please let us know.
The date of the next meeting is the 25th August 2022.