Police officers using stop and search are to be given new training, it was announced today. This is the first time the national standards have been raised since the procedures introduction in 1984.
It’s not a secret that police officers are likely to target black people when carrying out “random” stop and searches. In 2014, then-home secretary Theresa May had a clash with David Cameron when she voiced her concern on stop and searches, saying, “Nobody wins when stop and search is misapplied. It is a waste of police time… It is unfair, especially to young black men. It is bad for public confidence in the police.”
The training comes in the form of an online course and exam which challenges their unconscious bias, with the aim of making the stop and search procedure “fair, legal, professional and transparent.”
College spokesman Richard Bennett said, “We want to say ‘this is the training, this is the guidance, this is the standard’… and that may lead to fewer searches being conducted.”
Want to test your own unconscious biasness? Take the IAT test HERE.