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The Cycle of UK Racism - Stop & Search, Arrest and Imprisonment

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The Cycle of UK Racism - Stop & Search, Arrest and Imprisonment statewatch monitoring the state and civil liberties in the UK and Europe vol 9 no 1 January - February 1999 The cycle of UK racism - stop & search, arrest and imprisonment MURDER SUSPECTS In 90% of cases of murdered white people there are arrested, than white people suspects but for murdered black people there are suspects in only 60% of cases Black people formed nearly one quarter, and ethnic minorities (black and Asian people) nearly one third, of STOP & SEARCH all Metropolitan police arrests Black people form over one quarter of all stops and searches in the Metropolitan police area 15 police forces in England and Wales arrested the equivalent of one in five of the total black population Stops and searches have increased by 21% over the aged 10 or over in their areas year - a ninefold increase since 1986 (the first year of PACE legislation) Merseyside police arrested the highest proportion of the black population - nearly one in three of the total The proportion of arrests resulting from stop and black population aged 10 or over (apart from Norfolk) search has dropped from 17% in 1986 to 10% in 1997/8 IMPRISONMENT ARREST The number of black people per 1000 sent to prison Black people are now 7.5 times more likely to be following sentence was between 4 and 7 times greater stopped and searched and, 4 times more likely to be than for white people in ten selected police force areas In December the Home Secretary published his annual report This year's official report once again contains detailed tables “Race and the Criminal Justice System 1998” - a duty under for only ten police forces - those with the highest percentage of section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 to help overcome the ethnic minorities. As pointed out last time, the use of street discrimination. It covers the financial year 1997/98 and buried powers against ethnic groups are likely to be higher in those within the mass of detail, there is further support for the view areas with low proportions of ethnic minorities and vice versa. It that there is institutional racism within the police service in is therefore invalid and also unrepresentative to analyse the data England and Wales. for only forces with the highest proportion of ethnic minorities. Last summer Statewatch carried out a comprehensive A full picture can only be obtained from a detailed analysis of all analysis of the figures for 1996/97 and commented critically on 43 forces. Statewatch has, therefore, once again reworked the a number aspects of last year's report including the failure of the data using an adjusted set of population figures, supplied by the Home Secretary to publish detailed tables for all 43 police forces Office of National Statistics. The City of London has been left (Statewatch, vol 8 no 3/4). Now Statewatch presents unique new out of some of the analysis because it is so unrepresentative. data with far-reaching implications. Table 1 (overleaf) gives the main details. IN THIS ISSUE Sweden: Personnel control system see page 19 EU: Migration: first six countries targeted see page 22 Statewatch, PO Box 1516, London N16 0EW, UK Tel: (00 44) 0181 802 1882 Fax: (00 44) 0181 880 1727 E-mail: [email protected] © Statewatch ISSN 0961-7280. Material in the bulletin may be used if an acknowledgement is given. C Stop and Search of 40 per 1000 compared with 177 per 1000 for black people and There is still wide variation in the use of stop and search powers 66 per 1000 for Asians. Black people are therefore 4.4 times more in different police forces. At one end, Dorset police stopped and likely to be subject to an arrest than a white person. The Home searched 4 people per 1000 of the population aged 10 or over. Secretary's analysis of the ten police forces showed a slightly Essex police also had a low rate at 6 per 1000 of the population. higher ratio: black people were 5 times more likely to be arrested. At the other, Cleveland - the home of “zero tolerance” - stopped Some of the rates of black arrests within some police forces and searched 1 in every 10 of its population. The magnitude of are very high. Norfolk recorded the highest rate. It arrested 857 this figure must raise questions about whether the law is being black people during the year out of an estimated black population widely abused and the impact this level of stops and searches will of 1,400 - a rate of 612 per 1000. This is so extraordinary that have on police community relations long into the future. either the figure is incorrect or there was some event, attracting There was also extremely wide variation in the use of stop black people from outside the area, which led to disorder. The and search powers between the white population and other ethnic next highest was Merseyside (298 per 1000) followed by groups. The rate for white people was 19 per 1000, for black Staffordshire (291 per 1000). The lowest rates were in Cumbria people 142 per 1000 and for Asians 45 per 1000. Within the (38 per 100) and Humberside (75 per 1000). white population, the pattern of stops and searches followed that The black/white arrest ratios followed a similar pattern to the of the population as a whole. Cleveland topped the list with a rate stop and search ratios. The highest ratio was, of course, in of 98 per 1000, which was double the next highest, Dyfed Powys Norfolk where black people were 18 times more likely than (43 per 1000), followed by Merseyside (41 per 1000). The lowest whites to be arrested. The next highest ratio was in Sussex was in Dorset with 4 per 1000. Within the black population, (8.7:1), Surrey (8.5:1) and Warwickshire (8.4:1), Wiltshire Cleveland again had the highest rate with an extraordinary 419 (8.3:1) and Avon and Somerset (8.1:1). Cumbria was the only per 1000. Put another way, this meant that 4 out of every 10 black force to arrest similar proportions of black people to white people at some point in time during the year had their freedom of people. Overall 70 per cent of police forces in England and Wales movement curtailed by the police in that area. The next highest arrested four or more times as many black people as white people. rate was on Merseyside where nearly 3 out of every 10 black people were stopped and searched. Arrests from Stops and Searches Overall, black people were 7.5 times more likely to be The report examines the number of arrests that arose from stops stopped and searched than white people aged 10 and over. The and searches in two ways. First, it presents the percentage of stops black/white stop and search ratio varied from 1:1 in Cumbria to and searches under PACE and other legislation that result in an 9:1 in Surrey. Other forces with extremely high ratios of black to arrest by ethnic group for the 10 selected police forces. This white stops and searches were: Surrey (8.6:1), Wiltshire (8.1:1), shows that for the majority of the forces both black people and Leicestershire (7.3:1) Hertfordshire (7.0:1), Merseyside (6.8:1), Asians are more likely to be arrested following a stop and search Warwickshire (6.8:1) and Thames Valley (6.5:1). Interestingly, than a white person. Apart from Bedfordshire and Cleveland had a slightly smaller differential between white and Nottinghamshire where the difference between the proportion of black people and there the black/white ratio was 4.3:1. Asians white and black arrests are considerable, the difference in the were 2.3 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white majority of the 10 forces is small. Second, the report presents a people. However, some police forces had high Asian/white ratios. table for all 43 police forces showing the proportion of all arrests West Mercia, Thames Valley and Sussex had ratios of 5:1. which resulted from a search under PACE by ethnic group. This These figures provide no detail of the number of people who definition of stop and search is narrower than the one used above experience multiple stops and searches during the year. All the but the information is provided for all police forces. It is therefore comparisons assume that each stop and search involves a possible to rework the data to show what percentage of stops and different individual. Multiple stops and searches are, however, searches under PACE (but not other legislation) results in an common experiences for individuals in both the black and white arrest by ethnic group. communities. A black motorist, for example, was stopped 34 The first point that emerges is some of the data is clearly times by West Midlands police over a two-year period. wrong. Northumbria police, for example, report that they arrested At the end of January the Home Office published its annual 1112 Asians of whom 20%, or 222, were arrested as a result of a report on the Operation of Certain Police Powers under PACE, stop and search under PACE. Yet they reported that they stopped England and Wales. These recorded 1,050,700 compared with the and searched only 208 Asians under PACE and other legislation. 1,011,533 stops and searches in 1997/98 in the Home Secretary's Secondly, the figures show that while overall there is little Report - a difference of 39,167.
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