The aim of this audit and assurance review was to assess the state, efficiency and effectiveness of the processes for recording stop and search activity within Police Scotland and the associated procedures for supervision, audit and governance. We also examined the impact of the performance framework and targets in relation to stop and search activity.
The results of our review aim to provide the public and key stakeholders with an evidence base upon which to make an assessment of the accuracy of stop and search data. It also seeks to provide a strategic overview of stop and search in Scotland and inform the current debate on the future direction of the tactic.
We have included fieldwork with British Transport Police (BTP) in Scotland to enable comparisons with Police Scotland in relation to policy and practice. We also visited the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), to gain an understanding of its approach to stop and search and allow comparisons with Police Scotland.
In order to assess the quality of Police Scotland stop and search data we reviewed available documents such as training notes, memos, briefings and standard operating procedures. We also reviewed the end to end process of data capture from notebooks and electronic personal data assistants (PDAs), the transfer of this information to databases and the extraction of data for reporting. We conducted interviews and focus groups with a range of officers to better understand the relationship between the performance framework and the impact this may have on officer behaviour. We also comment on the extent to which changes to stop and search that are being piloted in Fife Division may have an impact if they were rolled out across Scotland
While our original intention had been to undertake an extensive audit of stop and search records, we were unable to meaningfully progress this due to an absence of definitive guidance and counting rules against which to audit. However, in May 2014, Police Scotland made changes to their stop and search database and a subsequent ICT programming error resulted in 20,087 positive search records having incomplete data. Police Scotland then sought to retrieve this missing information, which allowed us to review the findings of the data retrieval exercise. We provide comment on the validity of the Police Scotland internal audit and have applied our findings to provide an assessment of the reliability of the stop and search data.
In February 2015 we were asked by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) to undertake an independent audit of the 356 records held by Police Scotland that relate to searches of children aged 11 or under. We have included the findings of this additional audit within this report.
Police Scotland is currently reviewing stop and search practices and the on-going requirement for consensual search. We acknowledge that Police Scotland has been reviewing stop and search throughout 2014 and that some changes to practice have been tested through the stop and search pilot in Fife. The National Stop and Search Unit (NSSU) was set up in May 2014 and has identified areas for improvement and undertaken internal workshops and external consultation with a range of stakeholders to aid in the development of a future approach to stop and search. Police Scotland recently established a Short Life Working Group and a Tactical Delivery Group with representation from a wide range of interests and has committed to providing an update on the future of stop and search to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice by 31 March 2015. We trust this HMICS review will inform Police Scotland and the members of the Short Life Working Group and assist in setting the future direction of stop and search in Scotland.
In our review, we have suggested an approach that could result in significant reductions in consensual stop and search across Scotland, whilst at the same time building a reliable evidence base to identify any operational practice gaps or vulnerabilities that may require future legislation. We have recommended a general presumption amongst officers that stop and search encounters should be legislative, which combined with improvements in recording practices, training, audit and supervision should give communities across Scotland more confidence in the use of the stop and search and allow a more informed view on the future need for consensual stop and search.
We have also recommended that Police Scotland and the SPA consult with the Scottish Government on the potential development of a statutory Code of Practice for stop and search in Scotland. We believe this would establish clearly understood principles and safeguards for the public and be particularly beneficial in providing clear and transparent guidance to officers.
As a consequence of our review, Police Scotland will be asked to create an improvement plan, so that our recommendations are taken forward and that relevant good practice is disseminated across Scotland to promote continuous improvement. We will monitor progress against this plan and publish our findings as part of our annual reporting process. We acknowledge that some of our recommendations include changes to policy and would expect Police Scotland and the SPA to follow the processes recently agreed in their Joint Agreement on Police Policy Engagement – “Strengthening Police Decision Making, Strengthening Policing by Consent”.
We will be returning to undertake a statistically significant audit, of both positive and negative searches, once Police Scotland has had sufficient opportunity to consider our recommendations and implement improvements to stop and search across Scotland.
Number | Recommendation |
|---|---|
1 | Police Scotland should develop definitive guidance and counting rules for officers to provide clarity on what constitutes a stop and search and how these should be recorded and counted. This should include what a search can involve, particularly in relation to turning out pockets or bags, to ensure there is a common understanding among officers. |
2 | Police Scotland should require officers to record their grounds for suspicion for legislative searches and make this a mandatory recording requirement on the national stop and search database. This information should be used as a qualitative measure to support effective supervision and audit and to drive improvement in the use of legislative stop and search. |
3 | Police Scotland should accurately record and publicly report on items recovered as a result of a positive stop and search encounter. This should provide greater transparency and better inform local communities about local crime and disorder trends. |
4 | Police Scotland should develop, record and publicly report on disposal categories which effectively capture the outcomes of stop and search activity. This should include a range of measures which support the statutory purpose of policing to improve the safety and wellbeing of persons, localities and communities in Scotland. |
5 | Police Scotland should develop definitive guidance for officers about what information should be recorded from a stop and search encounter into their notebook or personal data assistant (PDA) to ensure consistency of practice. |
6 | Police Scotland should emphasise the rationale for recording the self-defined ethnicity of those who are stopped and searched and provide guidance. |
7 | Police Scotland should introduce processes for the proportionate supervision of stop and search activity. This should allow opportunities for individual feedback and learning to officers, which increases their confidence in the effective use of legislative stop and search and considers the quality of the encounter. |
8 | Police Scotland should define the roles and responsibilities of the National Stop and Search Unit and all internal business areas that impact on the end to end process of stop and search, including the quality of published data. |
9 | Police Scotland should remove the default selection of consensual search from the national stop and search database and require officers to specifically select the legislative power exercised in their stop and search encounter from a pre-defined list. An option to select consensual search should still be maintained until such time as a decision is taken over its continued use in Scotland. |
10 | Police Scotland should review its business processes and governance arrangements for the development, testing and acceptance of its ICT systems. This should include the testing and acceptance of ICT changes and updates to existing force systems. |
11 | Police Scotland should identify all opportunities to improve data validation on both the national stop and search database and personal data assistants (PDA) databases to maximise data integrity. |
12 | Police Scotland should develop proportionate quality control procedures for stop and search data, detailing how the process will be administered, what regular checks will be implemented and how data errors will be rectified and reported. |
13 | Police Scotland should review the principles and protocols contained within the Code of Practice for Official Statistics to develop proportionate internal guidance for publicly reported stop and search data. |
14 | Police Scotland should assess the training needs of officers in relation to stop and search and consider techniques that will improve officer confidence in the application of their legislative stop and search powers. This assessment should be informed by proposed changes to stop and search policy and practice across Scotland. |
15 | Police Scotland should consider a policy which raises a general presumption amongst officers that stop and search encounters should be legislative. This should encourage a position where officers only revert to consensual searches, supported by informed consent, where no legislative power exists. |
16 | Police Scotland should seek legal opinion on whether Section 61 of the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1997 can be interpreted to show an implied power of search for alcohol from young people under the age of 18 and adults in specific circumstances. This opinion should inform whether there is a requirement to seek further legislation in the absence of consensual stop and search. |
17 | Police Scotland should record seizures of alcohol and other age restricted products separately on the national stop and search database where there is no search of the individual. This should allow them to be counted and reported independently from stop and search activity. Police Scotland should also ensure that offences under alcohol by-laws are not recorded as stop and search encounters. |
18 | Police Scotland should engage with the Stop and Search Short Life Working Group and members of the Children and Young Peoples Reference Group to consider the implications that stop and search recording may have on young people. |
19 | Police Scotland and Scottish Police Authority should consult with the Scottish Government on the potential development of a statutory Code of Practice for stop and search. |
20 | Police Scotland should publish information on stop and search for local scrutiny and engagement committees and local communities. This should include detail on how this activity is aligned to local priorities and delivering positive outcomes. |
21 | Police Scotland should consider developing a framework for stop and search that aligns national and local priorities and promotes a values-based approach to the treatment of those who are subject to a search. Police Scotland should consider placing public confidence at the centre of this approach to stop and search and commit to on-going measurement through an independent survey commissioned by the Scottish Police Authority. |
22 | Police Scotland should remove the target for positive searches and the key performance indicator on the number of searches from its performance framework. In the interests of transparency and effective scrutiny, it should continue to collect and publish this data. |
23 | Police Scotland should put in place a proportionate audit regime for stop and search including positive and negative searches. There should be clear guidelines for officers completing the audit and those analysing the results. The findings of all audits should be scrutinised by the Scottish Police Authority Audit and Risk Committee. |