The Metropolitan Police has been forced to apologise and pay £6,000 to the family of a mixed-race boy who was unlawfully searched and handcuffed, The Independent can reveal.
Jason*, who was 13 years old at the time of the incident in September 2018, was cycling home after having his hair cut with his brother and a friend.
A police patrol car “suddenly” drove up very close behind them, prompting the boys to fear being run over, according to the boy’s legal team. Two white male officers then got out of the vehicle and one of them grabbed hold of Jason, pushing and handcuffing him.
The boys were released after 10 minutes and officers insisted that neither boy had been “detained or searched”.
The family complained about Jason’s treatment and four years later they finally received an apology and a settlement.
Jason’s mother, who is a serving police officer and asked not to be named, told The Independent that she believed the stop-and-search wouldn’t have happened if he was white.
“I think it was racist. If these were white boys then they wouldn’t have been stopped – but the Met won’t put their hands up to that by putting it in the apology,” Jason’s mother said.
“Even if they take the race side out of it – these are 13-year-old children and there was absolutely no safeguarding for their vulnerability at all. That was totally and utterly wrong, in my eyes.”
The Met denied there was any racist intent.
The officer searched Jason for drugs without giving him his details or the grounds for the search, the boy’s lawyer said.
As justification for the stop and search, the officers linked reports of a vehicle being broken into earlier that day with another complaint of four white youths in dark hoodies and tracksuits walking into people’s gardens, Jason’s mum said.
“Yet, here we have three Black boys in t-shirts on bikes; anybody can see that was a stop because of race,” she said.
The officer also failed to issue a written record of the search which amounts to a gross breach of the requirements of Code A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), enforced to prevent abuses of power.
The incident has come to light after a critical report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that the Met Police is failing to adequately record stop and search grounds.
The Met’s apology letter to Jason’s family, from a chief inspector in professional standards, seen by The Independent and dated May 2022, said it was “clear that in this instance that the MPS fell well below that standard”.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley at Millbank Studios, central London (PA)
“Therefore, on behalf of the MPS, I apologise to you and also to your family who were indirectly impacted.”
The apology contained no acknowledgement of the issue of race raised by Jason’s family and his perception that he was treated “aggressively” while being handcuffed.
Neither of the officers involved in the stop recorded their interactions with the children on their body-worn cameras, which were only switched on after the search happened.
But part of the incident was captured by Jason’s friend on his mobile phone and was used as evidence in the case.
It comes after an ex-Metropolitan Police officer was accused of sending racist Whatsapp messages
