A youth worker and leading police adviser on stop-and-search has been charged with assaulting a police officer who was using the tactic.
Ken Hinds told the Times newspaper he was questioning a white police constable’s reason for searching a young black man in north London. He alleged the police officer was aggressive towards him before accusing him of assault and arresting him. He has accused Scotland Yard of a “malicious prosecution” and strongly denied the charge.
Hinds is the chairman of the Haringey independent stop-and-search monitoring group in north London and a member of British Transport Police’s stop-and-search consulting group. He also works with the charity A Band of Brothers, mentoring young men exposed to knife and gang crime.
“They have accused me of assault on a police officer and obstruction,” Hinds told the Times. “The allegations are entirely false and I fully intend to clear my name.”
Hinds said he informed the officer of his position with the monitoring group and role with the BTP during the incident on 16 April. He spent 16 hours in a police cell and is due to appear at Highbury Corner magistrates court on 22 May.
The 59-year-old previously received an apology and £22,000 compensation from the BTP after he was charged for watching at a distance as police detained a teenager at Seven Sisters railway station in 2004.
He was returning home from an event and while waiting in the ticket hall for his son, he saw police arresting a young black man. He stood where he could observe from a distance in case he was needed as a witness but was approached by another BTP officer.
After insisting calmly that he was within his legal rights to remain, Hinds was threatened with arrest and then marched across the station in handcuffs by two BTP officers. He was charged with threatening and abusive behaviour but acquitted after magistrates questioned why witness statements by two police officers were worded identically in several passages.
