What is the evidence?

Question 1

Stop and searches and convictions

Answer 1

Per 1,000 of the population, Black persons were Stopped and Searched 7.0 times more than White people in 2009/10 compared to 6.0 times more in 2006/07

When referring to the rate per 1,000 population for England and Wales, it is important to bear in mind that the higher rate than that obtained for the rest of England and Wales(excluding the Metropolitan Police Service) is the product of the aggregation of 42 police force areas (PFAs), each with different distributions of both ethnic population and use of Stop and Search powers. While the area served by the Metropolitan Police Service accounts for 14% of the England and Wales population, 43% of s1 Stop and Searches are carried out by the Metropolitan Police Service.

Conviction ratios for indictable offences were higher for White persons in 2010 than for those in the Black and Asian groups (81% for White, 74% for Black, and 77% for Asian).
A higher percentage of those in the BME groups were sentenced to immediate custody for indictable offences than in the White group in 2010 (White 23%, Black 27%, Asian 29% and Other 42%). This may in part be due to differences in plea between ethnic groups.

On 30 June 2010, the total prison population in England and Wales was 85,002. Of these, 21,878 prisoners (just under 26%) were from BME groups. This proportion is consistent with that recorded from 2006 to 2009 (when it was between 26%-27%).

Question 2

Ethnic minority officers

Answer 2

There were 129,584 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in the 43 police forces of England and Wales as at 31 March 2013. This is a decrease of 3.4% or 4,516 officers compared to a year earlier (Table 1 and 3).

There were 6,537 FTE Minority Ethnic officers in the 43 forces of England and Wales. This represents 5.0% of the total police officers, the same percentage as on 31 March 2012 (Table 7).

The Metropolitan Police had the largest proportion of Minority Ethnic officers (10.5%), followed by West Midlands (8.3%), British Transport Police (7.5%) and Leicestershire (7.1%) (Table 7).

Minority Ethnic officers in the 43 police forces of England and Wales (including central service secondments) were under-represented at senior ranks (compared with other ranks), accounting for 3.8% of officers at the rank of chief inspector or above compared with 5.4% of constables (Figure 4).

Minority Ethnic officers in the 43 police forces of England and Wales that stated their ethnicity, 39.2% classified themselves as Asian or Asian British, 28.5% as Mixed, 20.8% as Black or Black British and 11.5% as Chinese or Other ethnic group (these figures exclude central service secondments, as figures are not collected by ethnicity). These proportions vary by police force area

Question 3

Evidence against

Answer 3

But is this evidence for police racism? Not necessarily
– Disproportionality to population?
– Disproportionality to involvement in offences (offence
patterns)?
– Disproportionality in availability?
– What is the nature of the discrimination?
i.e. situational, transmitted, interactional, institutionalised,
statistical, categorical
– Is there evidence of police prejudice and bias that would
motivate discrimination?
– Is there evidence for police-internal racism?
Statistical analyses suggests that alternative explanations/legally
valid reasons for differentiation do not account for the extent of
the disproportionality – evidence for racial discrimination

Question 4

How does Stop and Search relate to police

racism?

Answer 4

Bowling and Phillips 2008

• Use of stop and search powers by the police most controversial issue on debates about policing and ethnmin community
• Power to stop and search is primarily an investigative power used for the purposes of crime detection or prevention in relation to a specific indiv at a specific time
• But officers use stop and search powers for other things - e.g. gaining info on people ‘known to the police’ etc
• The concept of ‘reasonable suspicion’ is vague and police differ in their understanding of it
• Some have noted the importance of taking in account of ethmin ‘availability’ to be stopped and searched, accoridng to time spent on the streets and other public places
• Studies have shown ethnmin have higher presence on the street than suggested by resident populations
• Such forms of discrimination may be embedded in the reasons for which ethnic minorities are stopped and searched, including a lack of cultural awareness, a lack of understanding and the operation of culturally insensitive assumptions

Delsol and Shiner, 2006

• Evidence of subcultural patterns of racism and machismo began to be uncovered within the British police service during the early 1970s against a background of a racialised moral panic about ‘mugging
• Reported by Smith and Gray’s (1983) study of policing in London, which found that officers were exceeding their powers to stop and search, and that these actions were having deleterious effects on relations between the police and minority groups.