Racist Drug Searches?

[Lee14]

I was reading a report in Metro this morning about the stats behind 'random' drug stop and searches. Apparently the police are biased in that only 38% of those stopped are white as appose to 40% black. The report failed to mention other ethnicities such as chinese, mixed/dual heritage or asian.

 

Looking on the ethnic stats for Sheffield, over 90% of the city is of white origin where as only 1.8% are black/black British. (Census 2001)

 

So, are the police racist? Surely if the searches were random they would reveal stats similar to those of the ethnic origin census? But then again, can you imagine the headlines if over 90% of searches were performed on people of white origin?

 

What do you think?

[viking]

What do you think?

I think the 2001 census is WELL out of date.

[BasilRathbon]

I think the 2001 census is WELL out of date.

 

Really - what year was it done?

[Lee14]

Sorry, that was the only one I could find. I'm sure the figures haven't changed dramatically enough to make a significant difference.

[viking]

Really - what year was it done?

1997 I think Basildon.

[RichC]

I'd be very interested to see how many of these people - both black and white - were found to be carrying drugs.

[Lee14]

I believe it was approximately 18% black and 15% white that lead to convictions? Don't quote me on that though, I don't have the article to hand. It was more black than white though.

 

Would it be newsworthy if it was the other way around?

[RichC]

In that case, if more black people than white are found to be carrying drugs, then surely it makes sense for the police to target groups who are more likely to be carrying drugs? I mean, they're not going to stop old white women are they? Sounds like politically correct rubbish to me. If people have got nothing to hide, they've got nothing to fear.

[Dark Moomin]

What context were these 'random' stop and searches in?

 

A standard stop and search can only be carried out if the officer has just cause, e.g. behaviour suggestive of being under the influence, anti -socila bheviour, suspicious behaviour etc and the search would be to look for anything e.g. equipment for commiting crime, as well as drugs.

 

There are operations, I believe, around nightclubs etc designed to located people taking drugs intot he clubs, to use or to deal. My understanding was that the clubs with the worst drugs problems (this generally indicates coke, crack and heroin, over 'e') tend to have a high population of people from ethnic minority backgrounds attenting.

 

The 2001 census is out of date preety much from the time it is done,. and as a 10 yearly effort, it is never really accurate, but neither are most other estimates of population.

 

Another question: where and when were these stop searches carried out?

 

The city centre areas have a much higher proportion of ethnic minorities than the rest of Sheffield, and the rest of the county, and the population changes dramatically at night and on weekends in particular. If truely random (which I don't believe they are) opne would expect the proportion of ethnic minorities to reflect the population in the areas where the majority of the searches are carried out at the times the majority are carried out. And I wouldn't like to try and figure that out!!

[stackmonkey]

If they are operations based around nightblubs suspected of high drug problems, then they are not random and probably dont come under the stats shown.

Only 38% of those being stopped being white in a city where over 85% of the general population is white is a huge operational bias, though.