22 Feb 2023
Back in July 2022 a new in-depth report revealed a disproportionate amount of black men were being stopped and searched in the St Albans district.
Of the 609 stop-searches which took place between April and October 2021, 52 involved men who were black or from ethnic minority groups.
When you compare this to local population data it means black males were 9.6 times more likely to be stopped and searched in that period.
The report, which can still be found on on Herts Constabulary website, offered an in-depth look at all of these searches, the reasons for them, the geographical locations, operational challenges at the time and the outcome rates.
Now a new research project will explore if potential discrimination is evident by those police officers using stop and search powers.
The University of Hertfordshire will be completing a six-month study into the police tactic thanks to a grant from Herts Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd.
The aim of the research is to enable a better understanding of the available data, and any inequality in stop and search used by the police, by exploring ethnicity, age and gender and the impacts on different community groups.
Mr Lloyd said: “It is imperative that we understand whether stop and search is used in a discriminatory way so that I can take any necessary actions with the Constabulary to reduce this.
“I believe the crude way in which we currently measure disproportionality is highly misleading and not useful in indicating whether discriminatory behaviour may be taking place or its extent. If we really want to find out whether there is disproportionality we need to invest in some detailed research.”
The project will be led by Dr Kofi Addo, Senior Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire’s Law School. His team has a mix of academic research and practitioner expertise, with strong research credentials in quantitative and qualitative criminology.
The results of the project will be published later this year.
