Relationships between young people and the police can be tense and are often exacerbated by difficult stop and search encounters.
Stop and search procedures are one of the key touch points between police and young people and most understand the need for the policy. Yet many young people remain unsure of how it should be carried out, what their rights are, and feel that police fail to provide them with simple information that might make the procedure less hostile.
In addition there are some widely held misconceptions about stop and search policy. Young people often believe that police are working to targets for numbers of people to stop and search, and that the more people an officer arrests the greater the likelihood of their getting promotion.
The Young Foundation worked with students at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, MPS Haringey Police Officers and Haringey Independent Stop and Search Monitoring Group to: explore the impact of stop and search on students; help students better understand stop and search; and consider how to improve relations between students and the police.
This report highlights the findings and voices from these workshops and makes key recommendations for stop and search in the future.
Criminal justice Families & Youth
Posted on: 30 March 2013 Authors: Sophie Hostick-Boakye,