A Southwark youth worker has hit out at police after three staff members for his mentoring organisation were stopped and searched.
Sayce Holmes-Lewis, who runs Mentivity, which supports at-risk young people in London, said the Met were “not listening” to concerns about the controversial police tactic.
The incident in question took place on the Walworth Road on April 12. Mr Holmes-Lewis posted two videos to social media on Wednesday afternoon (May 4) which show three Mentivity workers being stopped and searched by territorial support group (TSG) officers while they were out to get lunch.
Police said that the three young men were searched because officers were looking for weapons and drug dealing in the area, and the men appeared to disperse and walk away when they saw the police. The men said they worked for Mentivity, but the officers did not know about the organisation. Nothing was found on the men and police let them go.
So this happened to my young @mentivity staff members as they were on their lunch break. The @metpoliceuk aren’t fit for purpose. They made these young men feel like criminals, whilst disregarding all they said and being childishly antagonistic… pic.twitter.com/EAj5bdlaFo
— Sayce Holmes-Lewis (@sholmeslewis) May 4, 2022
Mr Holmes-Lewis said his staff members had not been acting suspiciously and had been getting some money out of a cash machine when they were approached.
“They just throw things around. The idea that they dispersed is just not true.”
One of the men who was searched was white and the other two were black. “When you get to the crux of why they’re doing this, it’s not about race, it’s about class,” Mr Holmes-Lewis said. “It’s not just the black British community. This is more commonplace than that.”
The incident has been reviewed by the police’s directorate of professional standards, who said they found nothing wrong with it. Mr Holmes-Lewis disagreed, saying that the behaviour of the officers was rude and aggressive. “The way that they treat people is very important. It just shows the lack of relationship in general between the police and the community.
More kids under 14 stopped and searched in Southwark than any other London borough
Mr Holmes-Lewis, who was stopped and searched himself while taking food to a bereaved friend in lockdown in 2020, said he was going to have a meeting with borough commander Colin Wingrove and the leader of Southwark Council.
“We’ve all grown up around it, I want to be at the forefront of challenging it,” he said.
Responding to the video online, Labour council leader Kieron Williams said: “To see young men who are working so hard to support our community treated in this way is deeply upsetting. I will be taking this up with the MET. They must change.”
Police say that stop and search is a “vital tool” in preventing violence. Officers said in April that they were “redoubling our efforts to listen, engage and explain why we do what we do, to make improvements based of individuals’ ‘lived experience’ and to build trust”.
A spokesperson for the police said in response to this incident: “On the afternoon of Tuesday, 12 April officers from the Met’s Taskforce were deployed in Southwark as part of an intelligence-led operation to tackle gun and knife-enabled robberies and linked drug dealing.
“At 13:40hrs, officers’ attention was drawn to a group of men in Walworth Road. The group appeared to disperse on seeing the officers, with one person walking away, before regrouping again after officers had passed.
“The men were stopped and were informed that they would be searched, for weapons and drugs. No force was used and the men were not handcuffed during the search. Nothing of concern was found and no further action was taken.
“We are aware of a video on social media showing part of the incident.
“The officers were also recording the incident on body worn video and the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards has reviewed the available footage.
“They found that the officers had acted courteously and had communicated well throughout the incident, explaining to the men who had been stopped about why stop and search is used as a strategic policing tool to combat priorities such as violence and drugs, but empathising about the impact we know it can have on those who are stopped. The review did not identify any wrongdoing on the part of the officers involved.”