In the UK, if you’re black you’re more likely to be stopped and searched by the police. This isn’t new information by any stretch, but this investigation by the Independent shows the scale of the problem and which parts of the UK may need to address their policies when it comes to "stop and search".
In 36 out of 39 police forces analysed, black people are targeted more than white people for the intrusive searches. And the searches don’t seem to have much all that much basis either; less than a quarter of the searches ended in an arrest.
The "highest-scoring" county was Dorset, where a black person is 17 times more likely to be searched than a white person. However, London is one of the worst places too, where black people are 11.5 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people. If you’re a black person in Sussex, you’re 10.4 times more likely to be stopped. The place with the least discrepancy is Humberside, where black people are only 0.4 times more likely to be stopped and searched than whites. However, nowhere seems to be equal.
The government has said that they are looking at curbing police stop-and-search powers if their “excessive and disproportionate’ use of it does not stop, but race wasn’t mentioned.
Cover image courtesy of Adama Jalloah. To see more of Jalloh’s photography, click here
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