Black people THREE TIMES more likely to be stopped and searched by police
Officers stopped and searched black people in the region 2,653 times last year
Share14Comments
ByRob GrantNick McCarthy
16:46, 28 OCT 2016Updated10:21, 31 OCT 2016
News
Enter your postcode to see news and information near you
Community updates, Crime Statistics, Local News & Events and much more...
A West Midlands Police officer searches a suspect
A West Midlands Police officer searches a suspect
Share
14
Get daily updates directly to your inbox
Black people in the West Midlands are still three times more likely to be stopped and searched as white people, new figures have revealed.
Officers stopped and searched black people in the region 2,653 times last year - meaning they had a one in 62 chance of being stopped when compared to one in 197 for white people.
Across the country black people were more than six times more likely to be stopped according to the latest Home Office figures.
Last year the Birmingham Mail revealed that use of the controversial stop and search powers had fallen in the West Midlands by 50,000 stops in just three years.
There were 14,000 stops made in 2014/15, which is down from the 64,000 made in 2011/12.
During the same period the arrest and caution rate increased from four per cent three years ago to 26 per cent in 2014/15.
But figures for 2015/16 has seen the number of stop and searches increase again from 14,000 to 17,993.
West Midlands Police was one of the first forces to fully sign up to a scheme to record all outcomes, to measure how many led to an arrest and to introduce a community complaints trigger.
It has also rolled out new training to officers and has started mapping the areas where stops take place.
The measures followed the “clear inequalities” that were highlighted in stop and searches in 2013.
The city council’s social cohesion and community safety watchdog committee heard claims then by charities and campaigners that young black men in Birmingham were 28 times more likely to be stopped than young white men and young Asian men were 8.7 times more likely to be stopped.
Chief Superintendent Chris Todd told the West Midlands Strategic Police and Crime Board last September that the powers are a vital tool in the fight against crime.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...-more-12093956