1. Stop and search of ethnic minorities in the UK
A researcher’s perspective

2. Introduction
“Stop and search” – legislative and non-legislative encounters:
stolen goods, tools for theft, drugs, weapons, terrorism, traffic stops, stop and talk
Historical resentment among ethnic minorities (especially black people)
Trigger for Brixton riots (1981)
Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: “institutional racism” of stop and search (1999)

3. “Disproportionality” in stop and search statistics
>20 years of surveys: blacks stopped/searched more than whites.
“Ethnic monitoring” within the police service shows also blacks searched more.
Evidence of police stereotyping in decisions to stop/search (“ethnic profiling”)?

4. Police search statistics 2004/5: Searches per 1,000 population

5. “Disproportionality” in stop and search statistics
>20 years of surveys: blacks stopped/searched more than whites.
“Ethnic monitoring” within the police service shows also blacks searched more.
Evidence of police stereotyping in decisions to stop/search (“ethnic profiling”)?

6. Questioning “ethnic profiling”
Does disproportionality mean stereotyping?
Problems with census benchmark
Police operational factors affect stop patterns:
Geographical/temporal deployment
Suspect descriptions
Ethnic differences in lifestyle affect stop patterns:
Use of public space
Time of day

7. New research challenges “ethnic profiling”
Measures of “available populations” (in streets/cars where stop and search takes place)
different from resident populations
similar to stop and search profiles.
Similar conclusions across sites and studies:
Watford (Bonniface, 1999)
Greenwich, Hounslow, Leeds, Leicester, Ipswich (MVA & Miller, 2000)
Reading and Slough (Waddington et al. 2004)
City of London (Hallsworth et al. 2006)

8. Pedestrian searches in Hounslow (London) (MVA and Miller, 2000)

9. Indirect racism?
“indirect discrimination shall be taken to occur where an apparently neutral provision, criterion or practice would put persons of a racial or ethnic origin at a particular disadvantage compared with other persons, unless that provision, criterion or practice is objectively justified by a legitimate aim and the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary.”
(European Race Directive 2000, Article 2 b)

10. Is use of stop and search “appropriate and necessary”?
Limited effectiveness against crime:
no correlation between searches and crime or detection across forces
no correlation between searches and crime rates through time
Wide variation in use of power:
West Yorkshire 40 searches/1,000 people, Nottinghamshire 5 searches/1,1000 people
London ( MPS): increases black disproportion from 4 to 6 times

11. Conclusions
Focus on “ethnic profiling” in stop and search reform efforts
accountability on-the-spot
monitoring of officer discretion (e.g. through review of data)
Other causes of disproportionality not addressed
Disproportionality similar today as before Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.