As Inspector Hutchinson told the April North Area committee meeting stop and account forms had been abolished in Cambridge, yet I could find nothing to back this up on the Police, Police Authority, Home Office, the BBC or any other news media websites I decided to ask some questions and make some suggestions via the below three messages:

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To: Kevin Wilkins and Olive Main, relevant members of Cambridgeshire Police Authority,
At Cambridge City Council’s North Area committee meeting on the 17th of April 2008 Sector Inspector Jon Hutchinson told the meeting that the “All Stops” or “Encounter” form was no longer used in Cambridge.After the meeting I clarified this with him and he repeated it, he also told me he would ask if stop and account records collected in Cambridge could be deleted/destroyed now records of stops and accounts are no-longer made. However http://www.cambs.police.uk/information/stopsearch/ – Updated on April 18th 2008 still states:

“If you are stopped and the Police Officer or Police Community Support Officer asks where you’re going or what you’ve been doing you should receive a form outlining why you have been stopped.”

The Home Secretary’s 9th of April 2008 response to Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s Review of Policing Final Report states in relation to abolishing the stop and account form that there will be pilot schemes first, and national action by the end of the year. A three force pilot for removing the form has been mentioned: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/07/politics.ukcrime which states: “Jacqui Smith, today announced plans to abolish police “stop and account” forms in three pilot areas “.

Was Inspector Hutchinson correct to say the stop and account form is no longer used in Cambridge? Is Cambridge one of these pilot forces? Has Cambridge abandoned the stop and account form without waiting for the results of these pilots? Would you support the deletion/destruction of data collected, and if not how can keeping it be justified?

Many thanks for giving this your consideration,

Richard Taylor
Cambridge.

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To: Public Enquiries @ homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
The Home Secretary’s 9th of April 2008 response to Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s Review of Policing Final Report states in relation to abolishing the stop and account form that there will be pilot schemes first, and national action by the end of the year. A three force pilot for removing the form has been mentioned: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/07/politics.ukcrime which states: “Jacqui Smith, today announced plans to abolish police “stop and account” forms in three pilot areas”. Could you let me know which are the three pilot areas for abolishing the stop and account form? Could you let me know if other police forces have decided to abolish the stop and account form without waiting for the results of these pilots? (I have been told by a Police Inspector in Cambridge that the form has already been abolished here).Will the abolition of the stop and account form be followed by the deletion or destruction of the data collected by the police via the stop and account form while it was in use? Many thanks, Richard Taylor,
Cambridge.

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To: Cambridgeshire Police, Via the Cambs.police.uk web contact form for website comments:
At Cambridge City Council’s North Area committee meeting on the 17th of April 2008 Sector Inspector Jon Hutchinson told the meeting that the “All Stops” or “Encounter” form was no longer used in Cambridge.After the meeting I clarified this with him and he repeated it, he also told me he would ask if stop and account records collected in Cambridge could be deleted/destroyed now records of stops and accounts are no-longer made.However
http://www.cambs.police.uk/information/stopsearch/ – Updated on April 18th 2008 still states:

“If you are stopped and the Police Officer or Police Community Support Officer asks where you’re going or what you’ve been doing you should receive a form outlining why you have been stopped.”

If Inspector Hutchinson was correct to say what he did, the webpage needs correcting.

Initial Updates:

Kevin Wilkins has said he will look into this.

Cambridgeshire police have responded to me to state:

We will ensure that the Web Page is updated to reflect the current legislation.

They have updated their website, removing the sentence I quoted but leaving a link to a leaflet which contains content with exactly the same meaning, so not exactly clearing this up.

Update 2

PCSO Streeter confirmed to a meeting at the Meadows community centre, Arbury, Cambridge on the 22nd of April that the stop and account form had been discontinued in Cambridge, except if the person being stopped requests a form. Unless the full form is requested all that the person being asked to account for their actions will receive is the number of the officer who stopped them.

I am not convinced that this is compliant with PACE code A section 4.12 and 4.17

Previously in Cambridge I had expressed my concern that while the police appeared to be recording a person’s explanation for their actions this did not appear on the encounter receipt so based on that I am not entirely confident the police will operate this new system correctly. I do think that as it avoids over formalising essentially trivial encounters with the police the abolition of this form is an excellent step, and one which will remove a barrier between the police and those they are policing as people won’t avoid the police to avoid picking up encounter forms and the database entries which go with them, and the police won’t be made to look silly when they write trivial things (such as “wearing gloves”) on encounter forms as the reason for stopping someone.

Update 3.

Jeff Hill, a Detective Superintendent from Cambridgeshire Police wrote to me apparantly having been passed my request by Kevin Wilkins of the Police Authority.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary is not one of the three pilot sites identified to formally trial the abolition of Stop and Account forms. We have nevertheless, identified it as a bureaucratic and time consuming process that isn’t necessarily in line with our drive to provide a citizen focussed service. As a consequence of this and ‘Flanagan’s’ recommendations around the need to reduce bureaucracy, we have embarked on a three month trail programme of our own. During this period the existing forms will not be completed but a record of the stop, with limited details, will be otherwise recorded in officer’s notebooks. This will reduce the time that individuals are delayed and the level of paperwork that is generated. No centralised record of the stop will be recorded during this period.

I support this and think that as well as delaying the public and wasting officer’s time it will improve the police’s relations with members of the public as they will not be filling out forms and creating database entries based on trivial interactions. It will prevent people avoiding the police so as to avoid picking up more of these forms. The Detective Superintendent’s view of the new policy differs from the PCSO’s in two areas:

• The PCSO stated the person being stopped would receive the officer’s number, the Detective Superintendent’s version has the person who has been stopped not receiving anything at all.
• The PCSO’s version is potentially compliant with section 4.12 of PACE code A whereas the Detective Superintendent’s leaves open the possibility for more information to be recorded by the officer than is shared with the person being stopped making it in my view non-compliant. (But then their old system was non-compliant in this way too as a person’s explanation of their actions was not recorded on the encounter receipt)
• It is in my view unlikley that either version is compliant with PACE code A section 4.17 which requires the following to be part of the record: (i) the date, time and place of the encounter ; (ii) if the person is in a vehicle, the registration number ; (iii) the reason why the officer questioned that person; (iv) a note of the person’s self-defined ethnic background;(v) the outcome of the encounter.
• The PCSO said the old form would be produced if anyone asked for it

Detective Superintendent Hill also stated:

Analysis of the trial will be conducted to assess whether the benefits of not using the form were justified in terms of the reduction in delays caused to the public and time saved by officers. This will then be balanced against the loss of stop data and a decision made as to what our process will be for the future. As far as the retention of historical stop data is concerned, this is kept in line with the prevailing MOPI (Management of Police Information) principles and subject of tight control.

Quite why they can’t just tell me how long my and everyone else’s stop and account records will be kept for is baffling. To me it is clearly totally disproportionate for the police to keep computerised records of trivial encounters indefinitely.

The Management of Police Information Guidance states:

The type and amount of information held on an individual must not be excessive and must be proportionate to the risk they pose to the community;

What risk do those who’ve been stopped in North Cambridge for looking over fences, wearing gloves or wearing hoods pose to the community, how is keeping paper records of such stop and account events for 10 years (as stated by Sgt. Wragg to the Cambridge City Council’s North Area Committee), and keeping the electronic record for an unspecified period of time not excessive?