Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime Tagging Ex-Offenders

• Black people were 87% more likely to be selected to be tagged than white people.
• BEO’s intervention has resulted in a rapid review to assess and address racial disproportionality in MOPAC’s knife crime tagging programme.
• The settlement includes major reforms, including the removal of “gang involvement” as a selection criterion for tagging.

This is a significant step towards justice and accountability in the criminal justice system.

The settlement includes a rapid review of the programme to address concerns of racial disproportionality to ensure fair and unbiased decision-making in the selection of those for tagging. Measures include:

• removing reference to gang involvement as a selection criterion for tagging
• consistent collection of data of those selected for tagging
• improvements in communication so individuals know why they have been selected for tagging and how they can challenge their selection.

This victory is a step forward but not the end.

Kehinde Adeogun, Director of Legal Service and Policy, Black Equity Organisation said:

The proposed review and the discussions that we have had with MOPAC and the MoJ will mean that there will be a real focus on investigating racial disproportionality in the selection for tagging, the use of electronic monitoring and the relevance of training. These initiatives will result in greater transparency in the tagging programme. Ultimately there must be positive change in the way the programme is run going forward.

You can see our CEO Timi Okuwa talk about this case on ITV.

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