The Metropolitan police have apologised more than two years after an insurance underwriter sitting in his car outside his home was handcuffed, injured, strip searched and detained in a cell by officers looking for cannabis.
No drugs were found on Tariq Stanley, 30, who believes his race was the reason he was targeted. He said he was left traumatised and suffered injuries to his shoulder and left wrist, which was in a splint for two months.
Stanley sued after an inquiry by the Met cleared officers of wrongdoing.
The Met paid £22,500 damages and his costs, before the case alleging assault and false imprisonment reached court.
Met commander Jon Savell said: “We have accepted responsibility for our actions on that day, which fell below the standards expected.”
The Met insists the way it conducts stop and search is a crucial crime fighting tactic.
Savell said the force apologised for “for the injury and distress caused”, adding: “The officers on that day acted with good intentions when stopping and searching the man. It was never their intention for him to suffer any injuries.”
Stanley is the fifth young black man in recent weeks to obtain damages from the Met after being searched for drugs without any being found, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds to the force.
Stanley said he fought for over two years to hold them accountable and that the police had no grounds to search him.
According to legal papers, Stanley was working from home on 17 April 2020 and at 7.30pm left his flat in Woolwich, south-east London. Wearing a dressing gown and slippers he sat in the front seat of his BMW car, put on his headphones and a YouTube video, and lit a tobacco cigarette. His wife did not want him smoking in their flat.
A police van with six officers from the violent crime taskforce pulled up behind his car. One officer said he could smell cannabis and asked whether he was smoking the drug.
Stanley said he misunderstood, thinking the officer had asked if he had been smoking and answered “Yeah”. He insisted, contrary to the Met’s allegations, he did not obstruct the drugs search.
He was released without charge nine hours later just before 5am.
Stanley said he had previously been stopped and searched twice since the age of 18. “It is still my belief that they saw me and their first instincts were negative racial thoughts rather than neutrality and that’s the mindset they need to get rid of if they want to move forward.
“The police have not changed. Definitely not. We had to chase them for the apology even after the lawyers had agreed it. They kept on denying liability or doing anything wrong, but then said here is some money and an apology. It does not make sense.”
The Met said: “Due to government guidelines around Covid-19, officers approached the man to ascertain what he was doing in the area. The officers noticed a strong smell of cannabis coming from the vehicle and the man admitted that he had been smoking the class B drug.
“The man, then aged 27, was informed that he was to be detained for the purposes of a drugs search. He was arrested on suspicion of obstructing a drugs search following a struggle with officers. It was during this struggle that he suffered his injuries.”
The Met said it would learn lessons and claimed that stop and search between October 2021 to September 2022 had resulted in more than 55,404 acts of criminality being detected, which was “vital to saving lives on London’s streets”.
Iain Gould, solicitor for Stanley, said: “Why was the apology which Tariq undoubtedly deserved, not offered to him in response to his complaint, at the earlier, unforced stage when it would have meant far more … ?
“Tariq’s case is yet another example of how broken the police complaint system is.”
Earlier this month the Guardian revealed that the Met paid damages to two brothers, Nicholas Peart and Leon Peart, who were searched and handcuffed outside their east London family home in April 2020.
While that case was settled before it came to court, a week later the Met settled mid-trial with Liam and Dijon Joseph who were stopped and searched after bumping fists in south London in 2018.
All four men believe they were targeted for stop and search due to their race, which the Met denies.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which declined to independently investigate Stanley’s complaint, said: “The force are required to consider whether as a result of civil proceedings there is any conduct matter to record and refer. We are not immediately aware of receiving any referrals in relation to this matter.”
