Happy New Year to you all.
As we enter the new year with the promise of change on the horizon from the home secretary, we wonder if racialised communities at the sharp end of policing will benefit from the suite of reforms listed in her white paper… if they come into force, that is.
In parliament, we:
saw MPs and peers put questions to the government over child searches, ethnicity records, and knife bin amnesties,
saw a dangerous amendment to the crime and policing bill threatening to dilute the threshold for section 60 searches struck down in the Lords after crucial contributions from Lord Sentamu, Baroness Chakrabarti, and Baroness Doocey;
saw an amendment of ours to the same bill (put by Baroness Jones) anticipate the policing white paper; and
met with Neil Coyle MP over the mental health bill and other issues.
Our executive director Habib Kadiri was also interviewed by writer and journalist Simon Doherty about applying your rights during a stop and search. The clip is available to watch on Instagram and TikTok.
2026 is here, and we know that no new year is complete without yet another set of government proposals to reform policing in order to tackle ‘an everyday epidemic of crime’. Dubbed ‘the largest overhaul of policing in decades’ (Sky News, 23 Jan), home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the publication of a white paper intended to alter ‘the last, great unreformed public service’ for the sake of national safety (Gov.uk, 26 Jan).
Media coverage of From Local to National: A New Model for Policing focused on the minister’s proposal to grant herself the power to sack failing chief constables, following a row with the now retired West Midlands chief constable Craig Guildford over his decision to ban football supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv FC from attending a Europa League match against Aston Villa.
The news seemed like a knee-jerk reaction to a one-off incident. However, much like the fallout from the W80 misconduct case, it has proven more an excuse to introduce into the public consciousness ideas long in gestation, as the National Police Chiefs’ Council website states:
The white paper publication follows over a year of engagement and collaborative working between the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), police leaders and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) and delivers on the vision for change set out by the government in 2024.
- National Police Chiefs’ Council website
An even wider lens view of the situation points towards a long-term trend of increasing centralisation of police powers. Mahmood’s speech referred to the last major reforms to the policing model, in the 1964 Police Act.
That legislation was created following tensions between chief constables and local authorities over scrutiny of police actions. Taking its cue from a Royal Commission inquiry in 1962, the 1964 Police Act gave home secretaries the power to supervise forces, with further direction coming from police authorities comprising two-thirds elected members of county or borough councils and one-third magistrates. However, the already limited powers of police authorities receded over time, and by the 2010s they’d been replaced in England and Wales by police and crime commissioners (PCCs). Now, with PCCs themselves set to be phased out by 2028, the home sec’s white paper hopes to address the accountability deficit by taking an even keener interest in the decisions of chief constables.
If it sounds like a lot of responsibility for one home sec to take on, Mahmood appears confident that it will pay off, provided the following things also happen:
The 43 police forces in England and Wales are consolidated into fewer, bigger units;
Publishable targets are set on 999 response times, victim satisfaction, public trust and confidence;
An ‘FBI-style’ National Police Service is created to ‘provide a much stronger response to fast-changing serious, cross-border and online crime’;
Every police officer in England and Wales is required to hold a ‘licence to serve’;
There is a national rollout of live facial recognition technology*; and
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire & Rescue Services gain statutory powers to issue directions when forces fail to act on its recommendations.
We believe that many of the strongest reforms towards greater accountability are long overdue, and may have been more warmly welcomed had they been implemented decades ago. However, we reserve a degree of scepticism for measures intended to increase scrutiny of police actions, because in recent years we have witnessed police forces ignore and resist codes and protections against misconduct, whilst governments dismantled guidance and rulings designed to hold their actions to higher standards.
And with the release of action plans around police racism and misogyny that fail to deal with the root causes of its institutional failings, we harbour serious doubts that these proposals will be adopted in good faith, if at all. As Centre for Crime and Justice Studies director Richard Garside noted in a recent article, ‘when Labour last attempted a major police reform package, in 2006, it ended in a humiliating retreat’ (Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 30 Jan).
It also remains the case that there is no substitute for a vision of public safety that goes beyond ever greater police presence and surveillance of marginalised and racialised communities. The police will never be at the forefront of any truly successful anti-violence strategy. Governments must learn to prioritise non-punitive initiatives in order to help societies across England and Wales flourish.
* Curious move for the home sec to insist on technology driving efficiencies in policing when: 1) the beef with Gavin Guildford rested on the discovery of AI-generated intelligence errors in police documents justifying the operational decision to ban travelling support for the football match; and 2) the Home Office admitted to Live Facial Recognition tech having a racial bias. But the march of ‘progress’ is inevitable, etc, etc…
A man in his 30s has died after he was hit by a police vehicle on an emergency call in south London. The pedestrian was struck by the marked vehicle on Borough High Street at 00:34 GMT, the Met police said.
He was given emergency first aid by officers and treated by paramedics from the London Ambulance Service, but died at the scene. The man’s next-of-kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers. The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) have also been informed about the crash. The latter have begun an independent investigation (BBC News London, 07 Jan).
Deaths in police custody | INQUEST
The right to protest is in crisis: A new report from legal reform charity JUSTICE finds that the threshold for criminalising peaceful protest is lowering which risks eroding human rights (JUSTICE, 07 Jan). This coincides with the proliferation of civil orders which frequently curb meaningful judicial oversight. The report calls for:
a pause on all new protest‑related legislation;
repeal of the most draconian and unworkable powers introduced since 2022;
the creation of an independent Public Order Monitoring Authority to review policing and legislation annually;
removal of protest from civil order regimes and stronger oversight of local authority powers;
a statutory requirement for visible police identification at all protests;
a national database to bring transparency to protest policing.
The findings chime with monitoring group NetPol’s campaign to end zero accountability over the Met’s crack down on protests in London. Follow the link for more information and to sign up to the campaign #DefendDissent.
Boost in officers numbers = lower standards = more danger to the public: A review of Metropolitan police’s vetting standards and practices has concluded that the force lowered their vetting standards in order to boost recruitment from 2013 to 2023. This meant hiring a serial rapist who was found to be ‘one of the UK’s worst sex offenders’ (Channel 4 on Twitter, 08 Jan).
The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee questioned the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime on the final report from the review – named Operation Jorica – in light of the revelation that the Met was ‘under considerable pressure to achieve resourcing and representative workforce ambitions, both immediately prior to and during the period of the Police Uplift Programme,’ which had ‘adverse consequences’ for the Met’s recruitment standards (London City Hall, 28 Jan).
Fund communities, not policing: A collection of essays published by the Northern Police Monitoring Project (NPMP) argues against proposed council tax increases to fund policing, which this year is set to give an additional £14.4million to Greater Manchester police.
Bringing together contributions from the Greater Manchester Living Income Campaign, a local community centre, Kids of Colour, Migrant Justice Manchester, and the Manchester Women’s Justice Collective, the report – titled Fund Communities (not policing) – ‘raises concerns about both the democratic process surrounding the consultation and the continued expansion of policing despite sustained public opposition’, and ‘outlines how the same funds could be invested in community-led initiatives that address the root causes of harm’ (NPMP, 21 Jan).
What’s going on with SVROs? A collaborative investigation of the Serious Violence Reduction Orders pilot reveals an ‘evidence deficit’ where it is unclear what was found and what, if anything, the government will do next regarding the power (Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 22 Jan). StopWatch and Centre for Crime and Justice Studies show that more than 90% of the 357 recorded SVRO searches over the pilot period resulted in no further action, and of the 294 searches in which the outcome is recorded, only one found a weapon.
The CCJS write that ‘given the low yield of searches, this raises the question of whether this stop and search power is more about visibility and being seen to be doing something on a politically charged issue, rather than a well-evidenced contribution to reducing knife crime.’
Calls to restrict use of facial recognition heard in court: It will be ‘impossible’ for Londoners to travel without being scanned by facial recognition unless police use of the technology is properly restricted, the UK high court has been told. The Met face legal action over its potentially discriminatory use of live facial recognition (LFR) tech, brought by youth worker Shaun Thompson, who was misidentified by the cameras, and Silkie Carlo, director of civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch (The Standard, 28 Jan).
The hearing comes as home secretary Shabana Mahmood pledged a fivefold increase in the number of facial recognition vans for all police forces across England and Wales, despite a consultation on its use not being complete. A judgment on the hearing is expected later this year.
Black people in West Midlands disproportionately targeted for stop and search: Police and crime commissioner Simon Foster’s annual report to the council will show that Black people searched three times more often than white individuals. The issue will be discussed at a West Midlands police and crime panel meeting on 02 February (Birmingham Live, 28 Jan).
Police watchdog halt hearing against cop who killed Chris Kaba: The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) announced they are to put gross misconduct proceedings against the Met police firearms officer who killed Chris Kaba on hold. Martyn Blake fatally shot the unarmed Kaba on 5 September 2022 in Streatham, London. The police unit involved did not know who he was at the time of the incident (Voice Online, 28 Jan).
Articles | Institute of Race Relations
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