Southwark Young Advisors Stop and Search

Young Advisors in Southwark, London, have been working with the police to improve how stop and search is conducted in their area. Through a process of engaging their peers, Young Advisors found that young people were becoming increasingly frustrated on how stop and search policies were being carried out, this often making the police's job harder.

Young Advisor Jacqueline Macauley and her colleagues developed a questionnaire, the aim of which was to:

a) See how stop and search could be conducted more sensitively

b) Give young people a better awareness of the reasons why the police feel stop and search is a necessary strategy in the fight against crime

c) Assist the police in developing new training for its officers which would be delivered by the Young Advisors

Young Advisors then set about delivering the questionnaire to young people across Southwark.

The findings of this questionnaire have so far identified that young black men feel particularly disaffected from this policing strategy as they are often subject to it. The Young Advisors have presented these findings to the police, and both parties are currently working on raising awareness of stop and search policies and rationale amongst young black men in the area. They are currently working with the London Training and Resource Centre and the police to develop new training which they will deliver to potentially 900 police officers to help them understand why young people will often react in a negative manner, as being stopped and searched regularly, when you are doing nothing wrong, can make you feel unnecessarily targeted. It is hoped that this work will improve stop and search techniques and reduce tensions between young people and in particular young black men and law enforcement agencies.