Profiling Populations Available for Stops and Searches

• NCJ Number: 187256
• Author(s): Joel Miller
• Editor(s): Carole F. Willis
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 106 pages
• Corporate Author: Great Britain Home Office, Policing and Reducing Crime Unit
• Sale Source: Great Britain Home Office, Policing and Reducing Crime Unit
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom
• Note: Police Research Series Paper 131

Annotation

This report presents findings of research carried out by the Home Office’s Policing and Reducing Crime Unit at five study sites exploring those populations available to be stopped and searched.

Abstract

The research identifies three different explanations for disproportionality: there is ethnic bias in officer decision making on the street about who to stop and search; the populations available for stops and searches include a larger proportion of people from minority ethnic backgrounds than local resident populations; and stops and searches are targeted at areas which have high concentration of people from minority ethnic backgrounds. The research explored these issues by measuring available populations, and comparing them with resident populations and with those stopped and searched. It also explored the geographical relationship between stops and searches and crime. For the purpose of this study, stops without searches were referred to as “stops” and stops followed by searches were referred to as “searches”. Key elements involved in the study were: identification of hotspots within each of the five study sites; obtaining profile information of the available pedestrian and vehicle populations within the specified zones using video cameras and observers in vehicles; comparing these available population profiles with resident populations and those stopped and searched; and for two of the five sites, comparing the distribution of crimes with the distribution of stops and searches, and exploring reasons for any differences. Overall, across the five sites, the findings of this research did not suggest any general pattern of bias against people from minority ethnic groups. But, findings do suggest that disproportionality is, to some extent, a product of structural factors beyond the police control. Police forces must increase their efforts to minimize the bad feeling that stops and searches cause, particularly among those from minority ethnic groups. The research offers six recommendations. Tables, graphs, mappings, references