Hackney stop and search projects highlight concerns

Monday 8 August last year: police stop and search in Clapton Square, just north of Narrow Way. Photograph: Hackney Citizen

Youth organisations in Hackney are working to improve relations between young people and the police after stop-and-search tactics were blamed for heightening tensions before last year’s riots.

An estimated 9,000 police officers are in London for the Olympic Games, many of them unfamiliar with the communities they are patrolling, and youth workers are concerned that local young people could be further targeted.

However, a Hackney Police spokesperson said off-borough officers will be briefed to help prevent any misuse or unnecessary use of stop-and-search.

Resentment caused by the ‘perceived abuse of stop-and-search’ was considered to be a ‘crucial factor’ that led to the riots in Hackney last year, according to an Ipsos MORI report.

Hackney CVS, a voluntary and community sector support agency that commissioned the report, has linked up with Hackney Police to launch a stop-and-search monitoring group run by young people to keep an eye on the problem.

Youth programmes project manager Deji Adeoshun said: “We don’t know what will happen until after the Olympics but I hope that they will treat people fairly and do not stop on grounds of race or colour.”

Meanwhile Off Centre, a service and support provider for young people in Hackney, wants to see a marked reduction in the use of stop-and-search and with better training for officers making them aware of the negative consequences of repeated and over-zealous searches to individuals and their communities.

Its campaign, Stop and Talk, which is backed by national and local action groups, calls for a more positive form of engagement between officers and young people.

Lucy Ferguson, spokesperson for Stop and Talk, and director of creative youth organisation YH World, said: “We believe that stop-and-search is the embodiment of the negative relationships young people have with the police. This everyday occurrence dehumanises young people, often with little reason given and no differentiation between criminal and victim. We want to bring this issue to the attention of the nation and encourage people to put themselves in the shoes of young people who feel victimised and excluded because of stop-and-search.”

The campaign’s website features a short film, Pagan, about an 18-year-old from Hackney who has been stopped-and-search about 30 times and is caught between local gangs and the police. It asks the public to sign up to the campaign for better and fairer engagement between the police and young people and to record their experiences of stop-and-search to help create a clearer picture of the problem.

To help improve understanding between police officers and the young people they stop, the Crib Project, a coalition of four youth clubs, is holding two-day workshops called Trading Places.

The police explain why they consider stop-and-search to be important and the young people explain the type of treatment they expect from police when they are stopped and searched. The two groups then trade places and act out scenes where the young people stop and search the police.

Project manager Janette Collins said: “Both sides get to see things from each other’s point of view and get to understand how their behaviour can influence the behaviour of the other.”

Hackney Police acknowledge the concerns around stop-and-search and said that while there is an increase in police numbers in Hackney for the Games, they do not expect to see an increase in the use of stop-and-search.

A spokesperson, said: “There is historical evidence to suggest that confrontational interactions with police lead to complaints and increased tensions between police and a minority of the community. However attitudes are governed by the interactions with the officers and depend on the circumstances, the nature of the interaction and how the stop is conducted.

You can support the campaign for a ‘fairer and better engagement’ between police and the young people at Stop and Talk.

Pagan will premiere at an exhibition to mark the anniversary of the riots on Thursday 9 August at the Art Against Knives gallery in BOXPARK, Shoreditch from 6.30-8.30pm.

Related:

Look back at anger – why the Hackney riots last summer?