RACE AND THE POLICE: AN ARRESTING PROBLEM
HOW BLACK PEOPLE ARE NINE TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE STOPPED AND SEARCHED THAN WHITE PEOPLE
BLACK people are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people.
New figures released by the Home Office show that white people are stopped and searched the fewest times of any ethnicity.
Only four white people in 1,000 were stopped and searched in England and Wales in 2016/17. That compares with 36 black people in 1,000.
The most common type of stop and search is under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984, whereby police must have reasonable suspicion that they will find something to use this power. In 2016/17, some 54,532 black people were stopped and searched, which led to 11,982 arrests - or 22% of those searched. White people, on the other hand, saw 16% (26,765) of the 167,229 stopped and searched arrested.
In other words, while black people are far more likely to be stopped and searched, those episodes are only slightly more likely to lead to an arrest.
The pattern was similarly low for those of an Asian ethnicity, with just 16% - or 4,657 - people arrested after 28,768 stop and searches.
Some 20% of mixed raced individuals that were stopped and searched were arrested, or 2,117 out of 10,365 people.
Meanwhile, just 16% of people of other ethnicities (814 out of 5,259) that were stopped and searched were arrested.
Of the 11,961 black people arrested after a stop and search, the majority (6,817) were arrested for a drugs offence.
Overall, black people are generally arrested more than any other ethnicity, not just after a stop and search.
There were around 47 arrests made for every 1,000 black people in 2016/17 - three and a half times more often than the 13 arrests for every 1,000 white people.
Around 30 in every 1,000 mixed race people were arrested, compared to 16 in every 1,000 Asians and 15 people identifying as other ethnicities out of every 1,000.
A government spokesperson said: “Discrimination is as unacceptable in the criminal justice system as it is anywhere else - race and ethnicity cannot be used as justification for an arrest.
“The government is committed to shining a light on injustice as never before which is why we published the Race Disparity Audit and will confront the issues it raised.” Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: “Stopping someone based on their race or ethnicity alone is unlawful and unacceptable. These findings are very disappointing. We need to see a change and will continue to call for a comprehensive and coordinated race strategy from government to address disadvantages for ethnic minority communities.”