Stop and search police ‘unfairly’ targeted teens and minorities

POLICE Scotland was accused of ‘lack of fairness’ yesterday as experts revealed ethnic minorities and youngsters are more likely to be stopped by officers than other groups.

Those from a black/African background are twice as likely to be searched by police, while gipsy travellers are more than five times more likely to be stopped than the general population.

The research found a persistent ‘lack of fairness and effectiveness’ in Police Scotland’s stop and search policy, with more teenagers stopped than any other age group.

The details are published in a report by Professor Susan McVie and Dr Kath Murray of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) and were presented to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) in Glasgow yesterday.

Police Scotland changed its stop and search policy after opposition politicians criticised the ‘industrial scale’ of its use and fears it had been carried out without legal basis.

This saw more than 17,000 officers retrained. The code says statutory searches have to be ‘necessary and proportionate’.

The SCCJR research was carried out before the changes, but show while search rates are higher for those aged 16 to 20, this age group is less likely to have illegal items seized than those aged 21 to 45.

The report states: ‘Searches involving people aged under 16 were far less likely to result in a positive outcome compared to those aged 16–20, while searches of older people (aged 21 to 45) were significantly more likely to result in a positive outcome.

‘This suggests there is still inconsistency in the use of searches by age, which may indicate lack of fairness.’

A total of 3,700 searches of black and minority ethnic people were carried out in 2016, 7.5 per cent of the overall total. Scottish Labour justice spokesman Claire Baker said: ‘While stop and search has a clear role to play in keeping our communities safe, it must strike the right balance between public safety and individual rights.

‘We must not have a situation where race or ethnicity is the driving factor.’

Professor McVie said: ‘It is possible that as the number of searches has come down we have seen an ethnic minority effect. There is still a lack of fairness in terms of how searches are carried out for different groups. There is a very disproportionate impact on young people. If we are still seeing these disproportion ali ties in 2018 then Police Scotland will have questions to answer.’

An SPA spokesman said it seeks regular assurance from Police Scotland that stop and search practices are ‘fair, justifiable and proportionate’.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘These figures date from before Police Scotland’s code of practice on stop and search but provide us with information about practices before its introduction.

‘All frontline officers received training before the code came into force and searches will be carried out with fairness, integrity and respect.’

‘There is still a lack of fairness’