I decided to write to Kevin Wilkins, County Councillor (£6840/Year), David Howarth MP Staff member (Another job paid for by taxpayers) and Member of the Police Authority (£7631/Year), as he told me on April the 20th he would look into the operation of Stop and Account in Cambridge, I have received a response from the Police, but not from him. He is also a member of the joint North Area Committee responsible for setting, and holding the police to account for meeting, police priorities in North Cambridge.
Kevin Wilkins,
Are you satisfied by Cambridgeshire Police’s response to my questions on their new stop and search policy and happy that they are operating within the law?
I have written to the police suggesting they update their Stop and Search page (which used to also cover Stop and Account) to reflect the new policy, their response has been rather churlish – they have removed all mention of Stop and Account from the page rather than correct / update the information.
The Stop and Search page at: http://www.cambs.police.uk/information/stopsearch/ links to a PDF, the PDF states that during a “Stop and Account” / “Encounter” a form will be completed. This is no longer the case in Cambridgeshire so the either the PDF should be updated, the link removed or a note attached to the link to note the PDF is inaccurate with respect to Cambridgeshire. This page previously dealt with “Stop and Account” as well as “Stop and Search”, there is now no mention anywhere on the police web-site of Cambridgeshire’s Stop and Account procedure. Stop and Account is a common way for people to come into contact with the police and I think it is important that the police’s policy in this area is publicised so people know what to expect, or can check they have been treated in accordance with agreed policy. This is particularly important now that Cambridge’s policy is at odds with that followed elsewhere in the country. I am concerned that D/Supt Jeff Hill and Inspector Hutchinson’s description of the current procedure where: “a record of the stop, with limited details, will be otherwise recorded in officer’s notebooks” may not be compliant with section 4.12 and 4.17 of PACE code A if the record made is not sufficient or a copy is not given to the person being stopped. My local PCSO has told me he gives his “business card” to those he stops and asks to account for their actions, I find it difficult to believe this is sufficient to record the required information.
Is this three month trial of the new stop and account procedure about to be completed – neither the start or end date has been announced – who will the results be presented to, presumably it should be you at the police authority, though it doesn’t appear you were involved in initiating the trial?
On an entirely different point the Cambridgeshire police website has no mention of the new Cambridgeshire police phone line for those feeling in danger of being forced into marriage or in fear of honor crime despite it having a lot of media coverage today on the Web, TV and Radio. Media reports have given conflicting information on the times the phone line is available, and as there is no information on the police website there is no opportunity to obtain authoritative information.
Finally with respect to this Thursday’s North Area Committee meeting I would like to note that the minutes of the previous meeting do not clearly record the fact the meeting agreed policing priorities for the North Area. Not only are all the final priorities set not listed, even all the actions taken are not recorded. Ironically the minutes do record: “Cllr Blair was[sic] felt that the community needed to be better informed on Police priorities”. I have a number of times now witnessed the North Area committee request better advertising of the police agenda item and would like to suggest that the agenda item remains called “Neighbourhood Policing” and is given a specific time-slot at the next meeting, I believe this will encourage the police to advertise it.
Richard Taylor.
Cambridge.