Law Weblog

Recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report

The London wide roll out of Recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report was launched by the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday 17 November 2004. National implementation is due in April 2005. Recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report called for the police to record all stops as well as searches.
The Home Office implemented seven pilot sites for Recommendation 61 across the country in phases beginning in April 2003. The Metropolitan Police Service was one of seven police services chosen for the initial phase of implementation.

A police stop is defined by the Home Office as “when an officer requests a person in a public place to account for themselves i.e. their actions, behaviour, presence in an area or possession of anything, a record of the encounter must be completed at the time and a copy given to the person who has been questioned, this is unless there are exceptional circumstances … a record of an encounter must always be made when a person requests it, regardless of whether the officer considers that the criteria set out has been met.”