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10
August
2023
|
12:16
Europe/London

A new community panel set to make policing in Hackney better

Intimate searches, hand-cuffing, stop and search and the use of tasers will all be called into question by Hackney’s new Local Policing Scrutiny Panel. 

Made up of 15 community members from different backgrounds and ages, the new Local Policing Scrutiny Panel will be working to ensure fairer policing for all communities in the borough. 

Following an application process, the members successfully chosen for the panel were invited to Hackney Town Hall this month for a welcome event to launch the start of this important work. 

The panel will be reviewing police data, decisions and practice which includes holding the police to account for their use of powers such as intimate searches, hand-cuffing, stop and search and the use of tasers.

The new panel will be working together with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and the local MET Police to implement real progressive changes to policing in Hackney. 

Oladapo Awosokanre, Executive Director of the African Development and Advocacy Centre and member of the new panel said: “I joined this panel because I want the views and lived experiences of the Black community to be shared and really heard. I want to be able to bring back to the community assurances that the police are working for the good of everyone.”

A spokesperson for the Mayor’s office for Policing and Crime, said: “This new panel is the first of three London pilots and part of the Mayor’s commitment to significantly improve the way local communities hold their local Met police officers to account. In Hackney and beyond, schemes like this are essential as we work to boost trust and confidence in the Met police across the capital and build a safe London for everyone.”

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Cllr Susan Fajana-Thomas OBE, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Regulatory Services

I am pleased to finally share the launch of the Local Policing Scrutiny Panel. This is a necessary panel that has been in the works for years and I am confident that together we can repair public trust and confidence in local policing. This panel is about identifying real issues and delivering prompt and evidence based solutions. Disproportionality in policing is an unfortunate truth and this new panel is about working together, with the police, for the good of all our communities.

Cllr Susan Fajana-Thomas OBE, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Regulatory Services
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If you would like to find out more about the Local Policing Scrutiny Panel please email: communityengagement@mopac.london.gov.uk