Some Notts Police Stop and Search Stats

This isn't really to do with anything NCC but I sent a few tweets out this afternoon about the level of disproportionate stop and search of black and asian people by Notts Police. As I've done the work pulling the figures out I might as well recycle the info here.

• Notts Police actually have the lowest rates of stop and search in England and Wales, only 5 per 1000 in 08/09 (most recent figures from Ministry of Justice) compared with 24 per 1000 for all E+W. Next lowest is Cheshire with 6 per 1000, then Essex with 7 per 1000
• BUT in 08/09 you were 7 times more likely to be stopped if you are black than if you are white. You would have been 4.6 more likely to be stopped in 03/04, disproportionality peaked at 8.4 times in 06/07 then dropped to 6.7 times in 07/08
• Notts had the 3rd highest level of disproportionate stop and search of black people in 06/07 (its worst ranking in the 5 year period considered), this had dropped to 8th by 07/08 (last year Equality and Human Rights Commission had calculated the rankings)
• Asian people were 1.75 times more likely to be stopped compared with white people in 08/09. The equivalent figure was 1.8 times in 03/04, dropping to its lowest of 1.6 times in 04/05 before peaking at 2.3 times in 06/07. It had dropped to 1.9 times in 07/08
• Notts had the 6th highest level of disproportionate stop and search of asian people in 06/07 (its worst ranking in the 5 year period considered), this had dropped to 12th in 07/08.

Interesting stuff. I don't know what was so bad about 2006/7 but at least it does look like some effort has gone into reducing the disparity.

You can find the figures in the report 'Stop and think; A critical review of the use of stop and search powers in England and Wales' from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (the stats tables start from p74), with further figures from the 'Statistics on race and the criminal justice system – 2008/09' report from the Ministry of Justice.