On Friday 7 July 2017 just before Friday prayers at around 1:30pm, Mr. Muhammad Chamoune was stopped and searched by the police on Park Road, London, outside Abbey Lodge near Regent’s Park Mosque. Footage of the stop and search has been widely distributed via social media and is available to view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkRhZAC2r04. The tweet has been retweeted over 18,000 times and the Facebook video has over 5 million views.
Police powers to stop and search are governed by the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE). The relevant code governing these powers is called Code A, and is available at; https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/384122/PaceCodeAWeb.pdf
The very first principle in PACE Code A is that the powers must be used fairly, responsibly, with respect for people being searched and without unlawful discrimination. The code outlines that the police must have “reasonable grounds for suspicion” prior to being able to use stop and search powers (PACE Code A 2.2). This suspicion must be on an objective basis (PACE Code A 2.2(ii)) – i.e. “based on facts, information and/or intelligence, which are relevant to the likelihood that the object in question will be found, so that a reasonable person would be entitled to reach the same conclusion based on the same facts and information and/or intelligence”. PACE Code A 2.2B states that a person’s physical appearance cannotbe used to support ‘reasonable suspicion’ unless “the police have information or intelligence which provides a description of a person suspected of carrying an article for which there is a power to stop and search”.
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