UK: Police stop and search
01 March 1996
Since April 1993 all police forces are required to publish annual figures on the ethnic origin of all those stop and searched. The first year's figures, for 1993/94, show:
331,383 stop and searches of white people
110,522 stop and searches of "ethnic" people
(covering 42 police forces in England and Wales)
The police forces where the number of people of "ethnic origin" stopped and searched was over 10% of the number of white people are:
White people "Ethnic origin"
Met(London) 132,565 95,751
Gr Manchester 38,376 4,134
West Midlands 4,098 1,927
Leicestershire 10,378 1,414
Thames Valley 3,817 615
West Yorkshire 2,636 386
Bedfordshire 1,381 324
The number of people of "ethnic origin" stopped and searched in London constitutes 42%; 86.6% of the total of those of "ethnic origin" in England and Wales and 21.6% of the overall total number of 441,905 stops and searches in 1993/94. Moreover, it should be noted that these figures only refer to stops and searches which are recorded and does not include those who are stopped and questioned but not searched.