Man stopped in traffic by officers – Cambridgeshire Constabulary, June 2020
On 7 March 2015 in Ely, Cambridgeshire, two uniformed officers stopped a car to question the driver. The driver video recorded the interaction. Initially an officer explained that they stopped the car because the driver was Black. When the driver accused him of racial profiling, the officer stated that there was intelligence that Black men had been travelling to the area to deal drugs and the officer had not seen the driver before. After their conversation, the man was not searched or arrested.
The video was shared on social media following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. On 8 June 2020, Cambridgeshire Constabulary received a complaint on behalf of the man who was stopped. They referred it to the Cambridgeshire Constabulary Professional Standards Department who assessed it and subsequently referred the matter to us.
On 16 June 2020, we declared that this matter would be subject of an independent investigation.
We investigated the circumstances of this stop, whether the actions of the officers were appropriate and proportionate and followed approved police policies and if racial discrimination played a part in the incident.
The video recording of the incident was reviewed, and an account taken from the driver.
We served two officers with notices for alleged breaches of the standards of professional behaviour and we subsequently interviewed them. We retrieved necessary and relevant documents from Cambridgeshire Constabulary. We analysed the intelligence reports available at the time which informed the stop. We also took accounts from other Cambridgeshire officers regarding available intelligence.
Our investigation concluded in December 2020.
We concluded there was no indication any police officer had behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or had committed a criminal offence.
The officers’ decision-making appeared to be based on what they considered to be relevant intelligence and a description (related to personal factors), which national guidance cites are criteria that can form reasonable grounds for suspicion in relation to stop and search.
We found no case to answer for misconduct however, we did identify performance issues where the officer’s behaviour had fallen short of public expectations. These included: the strength of the intelligence he relied on and behaviours he observed that resulted in him stopping the man; how his actions may have disproportionately impacted upon Black men in the area and why the stop may be viewed as discriminatory; the impact this incident had on the man and potential for his actions to bring discredit on the police service or undermine confidence in policing; and what he could do differently.
In our opinion it would also be appropriate for the officer to receive training on equality, diversity and inclusion.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary accepted that while these breaches did not meet the threshold for disciplinary action, the officers should be subject to the reflective practice review process.
We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.
We did not identify any organisational learning, but the investigation was considered as part of a wider piece of work we did to study stop and search cases nationally.