Responses to the super-complaint from the Criminal Justice Alliance
Responses to the super-complaint from CJA about the police’s use of ‘suspicion-less’ stop and searches and the scrutiny of all stop and search powers.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
The super-complaint is about the police’s use of section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and the scrutiny of all stop and search powers.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published a report in response to the super-complaint submitted by the Criminal Justice Alliance. We made recommendations to chief constables, police and crime commissioners or equivalents, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and the Home Office. The report also included actions for HMICFRS and the College of Policing. The details of these recommendations and actions are listed in our joint report on the Criminal Justice Alliance’s super-complaint - Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and independent community scrutiny of stop and search.
Information on whether organisations have accepted the recommendations made to them is provided in the letters from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) and the Home Office.
Please note: We have asked police forces to publish their responses to relevant recommendations made in the CJA super-complaint report on their own websites. You can visit force websites to view forces’ responses.
Information on the actions for the College of Policing and HMICFRS is provided below.
College of Policing
Action 1: The College of Policing
This action was for the College of Policing to update the stop and search national policing curriculum. The update will make sure learning outcomes related to the authorisation and application of suspicion-less stop and search powers, including section 60, are appropriate. The College of Policing also committed to considering the need to include learning outcomes related to child safeguarding and the expectations regarding refresher training.
The College has begun scoping the update to the stop and search national policing curriculum outlined in Action 1. As set out in the action, details of this work will be included in the next College business plan.
Action 2: The College of Policing
This action was for the College of Policing to submit a bid to the Police Science, Technology and Research (STAR) fund in 2024/25. The bid will seek funding for evaluating initiatives that support officers to use stop and search powers, including section 60, in well-targeted and procedurally just ways.
In line with Action 2, the College and the NPCC have written to all forces asking for examples of innovative stop and search practice (including around section 60) and for volunteers to pilot new approaches to stop and search for the College to evaluate. We will use these expressions of interest to build the STAR bid that will be submitted in 2024/25 as outlined in the action.
HMICFRS
Subject to funding, HMICFRS agreed to inspect how the recommendations have been addressed. HMICFRS is planning this inspection.
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Police super-complaints: police use of stop and search powers