Stop and Search
What is Stop and Search?
- An officer can stop and search you if they have a genuine suspicion that items that could be used to commit crime or are evidence of an offence (e.g. stolen property or weapons) will be found on you. Their suspicion must seem reasonable to an independent observer
- Being stopped and searched does not mean that you are under arrest or have necessarily done anything wrong. It does not mean that you have a criminal record
- The officer must be able to explain what information or behaviour has caused them to be suspicious and led to the stop and search.
Every three months, an External Scrutiny Panel meets to discuss Surrey Police’s use of force and stop search. It's chaired independently and made up of a group of community members who hold senior officers to account, by asking questions and reviewing and scrutinising our use of these powers through review of Body Worn Video, records of completed forms and data trends.
Discussions from the External Scrutiny Panel feed into a quarterly Internal Governance meeting, where force leads and department representatives meet to jointly discuss key points that were raised by the External Scrutiny Panel, and conduct their own reviews of footage, forms, and data to inform policy and training practices.
For the latest key findings, summaries, and full minutes from the latest meetings, please click here for the external panel and here for the internal panel.
- The search must be justified, lawful and stands up to public scrutiny
- The officer has genuine and objectively reasonable suspicion they will find a prohibited item for use in a crime
- You understand why you have been searched and feel you have been treated with respect
- The search was necessary and the best method the officer could use to establish whether you have such an item.
You should be informed of:
- why you are being stopped and/or searched
- the officer’s name and the station they are based
- which power they have used to stop you, and
- you should be treated in a professional manner, with dignity and respect.
If an officer needs to remove more than your jacket, outer coat or gloves, footwear or headgear, you will be taken somewhere out of public view. This could include a police vehicle or police station and, if the search involves the removal of more than footwear or headgear it will be done in the presence of an officer who is the same sex as you.
You don’t have to give the officer your personal details even if they ask for them. You will be offered a record of the search.
As part of the Home Office Best Use of Stop and Search & Scheme, the Force's Professional Standards Department (PSD) flag every complaint which relates to stop and search. At the point of flagging, the complaint is cross referenced with other stop and search complaints over the previous 12 months to check for any trends. This is reported through Stopwatch (a quarterly meeting to review our Stop and Search activity). Where trends are identified, an action plan will be implemented.
The Force runs a lay observers' scheme which allows members of the public to accompany police officers on patrol to witness and feedback on the use of stop and search.
We welcome expressions of interest from Surrey residents wishing to take part in the scheme. To do so please visit the contact us page. In order for us to conduct basic security checks we will require your full name, date of birth and address.
On Friday, 15 December His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published their ‘Report on the Criminal Justice Alliance’s super-complaint’.
The super-complaint raises concerns about the harms caused by ‘suspicion – less’ stop and searches under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (CJPOA) and inadequate scrutiny of all stop and search powers.
Following a joint inspection with the College of Policing (CoP) and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), HMICFRS produced a report with 10 recommendations, seven of which are for chief constables.
In this report, Surrey Police highlights our force response to these recommendations, with examples of where we are already demonstrating strong practice and areas which have been identified for improvement. Governance and scrutiny was a key theme in the report and our response details the extensive processes we have in place to ensure we are not only holding our colleagues to account, but being scrutinised by independent community members.
Although Surrey Police has a relatively low number of section 60 authorisations, (one in the past 12 months), it’s important that we are open and transparent about our response to this report to build trust and confidence in the way we use this power.