The Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales, released on 8 March, sets out some of the most radical reforms recommended for restoring public faith in the police. It comes just before the publication of a policing review about a schoolgirl in Hackney who was found to have been unjustly strip searched.
The review follows a period of increased scrutiny and accusations of misogyny and racism within the police. Restoring public faith in the police has become increasingly more challenging.
Several cases which were prevalent in the news, including the murder of Sarah Everard by police officer Wayne Couzens, and the images shared by police constables at the crime scene of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, have spurred calls for change in police culture.
The strip search of a 15-year-old Black schoolgirl in Hackney by Metropolitan Police in December 2020 while at school led to a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review on 14 March 2022, which said the search was “unjustified” and racism was a “likely” factor.
Headed by Sir Michael Barber and supported by the Police Foundation thinktank, the report made 56 recommendations on police training, bureaucratic structures and general culture. Sir Michael said the loss of public confidence in policing is a “serious problem”.
“Only fundamental reform can reverse the crisis of confidence in policing,” he said.
Some of the recommendations include the use of a “Licence to Practice” policing to be checked for renewal every five years subject to a performance review.
Attempts to modernise the service from top to bottom would come from heavy investment in front line work, training and technology.
The review found that there has been a 240 per cent increase in the number of rapes reported to the police in England and Wales, yet the number of rape cases resulting in a charge between 2015 and 2021 fell by 7 per cent to only 1.5 per cent.
It also found that at the current pace of diversity efforts it will take the police service until 2079 to achieve a workforce that is representative of England and Wales in terms of ethnicity.
Councillor Antoinette Bramble, Deputy Mayor of Hackney and Chair of the Children & Young People Board, told BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour on 16 March: “We know there is racism in society, we know there is bias in society…everywhere, in every circumstance.”
In speaking of Child Q, the young girl strip searched by police at a Hackney school, Cllr Bramble said: “It’s awful…it’s traumatic, it’s devastating, it’s humiliating, it’s disempowering, it is awful. And how for a young person in their safe space, one of the most awful things and invasive things can happen to change their environment is really really traumatic.”
“This is really really worrying.”
Cllr Bramble added that while the police had reason to believe the girl smelled of cannabis, that this alone is “not grounds for searching anybody, you need other factors to be able to support that information”.
“A generation in 10 years’ time will look at what’s happening now and will be horrified that things can happen in schools and affect children just because of the colour of their skin.”
She added that the onus falls not only on the police involved, but also on the teachers. “Let’s not just put all the blame on the police because it’s a two fold issue here, there’s the educational authority as well.”
The Metropolitan police said: “We are aware of the publication of a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review in relation to this case and are apologising to the girl involved”.
“The child’s bag and outer clothing had already been searched by staff at the school prior to police arrival with no drugs found.”
“The search was not undertaken in the presence of an appropriate adult.”
