A man who has been stopped by police in London dozens of times although he has never been found guilty of any offence, says he plans to sue them for “severe racial profiling”.
Ryan Colaço, 31, hit the headlines after posting footage on social media about two police stop-and-search incidents that happened in quick succession. The first took place on 23 May in Northumberland Park in north London when he said Metropolitan police officers “aggressively tailgated” him. Police said they could smell cannabis from his car but none was found.
The second took place less than a week later on 29 May, when he was driving home from an interview at Channel 4 about the first incident. He was stopped by City of London police, who accused him of “dashing stuff up in his waistband”. He said officers smashed his car window, forcefully removed him from his car, handcuffed him, drug tested him and took him to a police station where he was strip-searched and held for 12 hours. Nothing was found.
He made complaints to both forces and the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which directed City of London police to carry out their own investigation into the incident.
The force exonerated themselves in their investigation and found the level of service provided was acceptable apart from the condition his car was in when they returned it to him, for which they have apologised.
Colaço has spoken out about what he believes to be racial profiling by the police at a time when new research from University College London has found that young black men in London are 19 times more likely to be stopped than the general population.
In the latest incident where Colaço was stopped and searched in Trinity Church Square in Southwark in south London on 29 September, he said he was accused by police of having made a “sudden turn” but he said he had not seen the police at that point. He was again handcuffed, searched and stood against a wall.
He was told he was being searched for stolen property but none was found. He was then told he was driving with illegal number plates on his car and was issued with a fixed penalty notice for this alleged offence.
He took the plates into Forest Gate police station and filmed officers there confirming that the plates were legal.
On 16 October he received a letter from MPS saying that the fixed penalty had been cancelled and no further action would be taken against him.
“I have never been involved with drugs in my life and I have never broken the law,” he said. “I’m always polite to the police but I still get treated in this way.
“I work as a film location manager so need to drive for my work. I want to sue the police because I have lost faith in the police complaints procedure. Police should not investigate themselves.
“It’s extremely stressful to keep getting stopped like this and it makes it difficult for me to carry on with my daily life. I keep my car tip-top and there’s no reason for the police to keep stopping me.”
A MPS spokesperson said: “Due to the manner of his driving Mr Colaço was stopped by officers on Tuesday 29 September in Trinity Church Square, SE1. Upon engaging with him, officers formed reasonable grounds to suspect Mr Colaço was in possession of prohibited items and conducted a search.
“No prohibited items were found and Mr Colaço was able to continue on his way. Following this interaction, and having been made aware of footage circulating on social media, the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards reached out to Mr Colaço to discuss the encounter. No formal complaint has since been received.”
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