Stop and Search

The police can stop you in the street to ask you about what you are doing in certain circumstances (this is called a ‘stop and account’), or to search you for certain things (‘stop and search’)

The police must have some reason for stopping you. The reason doesn’t have to specifically relate to you, but there must be some reason why they have stopped you.

A ‘stop and account’ is when the police stop you and ask you questions about who you are and what you are doing

The police might be worried about your safety, or they might be worried that you are going to cause trouble (or that you have already been involved in some trouble).

The police might ask you who you are, how old you are and where you are going during a ‘stop and account’.

You don’t have to answer the questions that the police ask you, unless the police think you have been involved in anti-social behaviour (or are going to be involved). If this is the reason you have been stopped, and you don’t answer the police questions, you might be arrested and taken a police station.

If the police stop you because they think you have been involved in anti-social behaviour (or you are going to be) and you don’t answer their questions, the police can arrest you.

If the police think you are lying to them, they can arrest you for being obstructive – even if you haven’t done what they stopped to ask you about.

You can’t be arrested just for not stopping, or for not answering questions – unless you’ve been stopped because of anti-social behaviour.

Find out more about being arrested, and your rights, here.

A ‘stop and search’ is when the police, or a Police Community Support Officer, stop you in the street and search you for something that they think you may be carrying.

The police have to think that they are going to find what they are looking for – they can’t search you ‘just in case’.

The police can search you if they think that you have something that has been stolen or something else that you aren’t supposed to have. This can include fireworks, a knife, other weapons, or illegal drugs. The police have to have some reason for thinking that you have one of these things.

The police can ask you to take off ‘outer clothes’ (coat or jacket and gloves) during a stop and search on the street. This is called a ‘non-intimate’ search.

If the police want you to take off more than just your outer clothes they must do this somewhere private. This will usually be the nearest police station. This is called an ‘intimate search’.  If the police want to carry out an intimate search, there must be 2 police officers both of the same sex as you (2 male officers if you are male, 2 female officers if you are female).

Before the police search you, they must:

• Show you their ID card (warrant card) if they are not in uniform,
• Tell you the name of the police officer searching you and which police station he or she is from,
• Explain what they are looking for,
• Explain why they think they will find it,

Tell you that you can have a record of the search

You can be sent a record of the stop and search by text or by email. If you do not want to give the police your mobile number of email address, you can ask for the reference number of the search. The police should give you this on paper, and you can take the reference number to the police station to get a record of the stop and search.

If the police officer who searches you finds prohibited items (a knife, a gun, fireworks etc) or stolen goods, they can confiscate them (take them and keep hold of them). If the police find these sorts of things during the search they will probably arrest you and charge you with an offence.

Your rights when you are at the police station which come from UK laws. These rights include things like being told you can have an appropriate adult and free legal advice. You also have rights in Wales from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

If you are under 18, in Wales, you have all the rights of children that are contained in the UNCRC.

The UNCRC doesn’t specifically talk about ‘police powers’ but it does talk about the rights of children and young people, and how they should be treated. The police in Wales must still respect your rights ‘as a child’, even if they think you have broken the law. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be stopped and searched, or arrested, but it does mean that you should be treated ‘as a child’ by the police and that you should be treated in accordance with your UNCRC rights.

The UNCRC says that

• you should not be treated cruelly,
• If you break the law, you shouldn’t be kept in a prison with adults,
• You should be able to have contact with your family,
• If you are accused of breaking the law, you should be treated as if you haven’t broken the law until it’s clear that you have broken the law,
• If you are charged, you should be told about this quickly and directly,
• Your privacy should always be respected.

The rules the police follow about how they should treat you might mean that you are not treated properly in the way the UNCRC says you should be treated.

If you think that the police have not respected your UNCRC rights in the way they have treated you, you should talk to your solicitor.

If you think you have been treated badly by the police, you can make a complaint. You can complain directly to the police force that’s involved. You will need to know whether the police force that has treated you badly is:

• North Wales Police
• South Wales Police
• Gwent Police, or
• Dyfed-Powys Police

If you’d prefer not to complain directly to the police force, you can complain through the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) website. If you need to read the website in Welsh, or any other language, you can change the language using the dropdown menu in the bottom left corner of the screen.

If you use the IOPC website to make your complaint, it will still probably be looked at first by the police force.

The IOPC will investigate some kinds of complaints.

There’s no time limit for making a complaint, but if you leave it longer than 12 months, you will need to explain why you didn’t make a complaint sooner. It will make it harder for the police to investigate your complaint the longer you leave it.

Anti-social behaviour means anything that might be capable of causing a nuisance or annoyance. No one actually has to be upset or annoyed for your behaviour to be ‘anti-social’ and for you to end up with an Injunction to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance (IPNA). If you’re under 18, an application for an IPNA will be dealt with in the Youth Court. An IPNA can only last for 12 months if you’re under 18.

Lots of different organisations can apply for an IPNA against you, not just the police.

You can also get an IPNA to stop you behaving in a particular way at home, not just out in public places.

If you are behaving anti-socially, you could end up with an injunction which can tell you do stop behaving in a particular way and can also require you to do certain things. This is called an Injunction to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance (IPNA). This used to be called an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO).

If the police think you are causing trouble for people in a particular place, they can tell you to leave and not to come back to that place for up to 48 hours. If you are under 16 (or the police think you are under 16), they can take you home, or to another safe place.