Recommendation 53

In the twenty-two years since the Macpherson report there have been different attempts to reform the way stop and search has worked, but there has been little progress in addressing the unexplained and unjustified racial disparities or building confidence among BME communities. Despite the fact that basic, sensible policy recommendations have been made over many years including by HMICFRS, and we have seen some excellent local work done between police forces and local communities to tackle problems, too often these recommendations and initiatives have been piecemeal and not widely implemented or sustained. That needs to change urgently. Police forces and the Home Office need to take these failures seriously. In particular, we are very perplexed and disappointed that the ongoing recommendations made by HMICFRS since 2017 aimed at improving how stop and The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on 185 search is used are still not being adopted by all forces. The Home Office, NPCC and APCC need to agree a clear action plan endorsed by the National Policing Board to ensure that all forces are following the HMICFRS recommendations.