Rachel Zerihan

StopWatch is the leading independent voice on stop and search and disproportionate policing. Formed in 2010, as a coalition of academics, lawyers, civil society organisations, and community stakeholders, StopWatch works to promote fair, effective and accountable policing. Our awareness-raising events, trainings and forums share knowledge and resources and provide safe spaces for those experiencing policing to be heard by policy-makers. Examples include the Y-Stop programme, youth designed and led training which focuses on descaling stop and search encounters and holding the police to account. Our legal members support legal research, individual complaints and strategic legal challenges. With no other civil society organisation solely focused on stop and search, StopWatch is building capacity and resilience, providing scrutiny and pressure and using research based on lived experience to ensure that changes are meaningful and impacts long-term. Since forming in 2010, StopWatch initiated a wide-ranging campaign against the disproportionate use of stop and search, the increasing use of exceptional stop and search powers and the weakening of accountability mechanisms. This includes legal and policy analysis, media coverage and commentary, political advocacy, litigation, submissions to national and international organisations and community organising.