Report into Gloucestershire Police's stop and search raises "important questions" around disproportionality

The finding of a report into Gloucestershire Police's use of stop and search raises "important questions" around disproportionality.

It's been published as senior officers commit to more work to ensure fairness across communities.

The report was commissioned by the Constabulary and written by analysts within the Intelligence, Analysis and Research team using data from all recorded stop searches in 2019, which totalled 2377.

What were the key findings?

• Black people were seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white person when you take into account the size of the population for each ethnic group.

• The majority of all stop searches took place in the Barton and Tredworth and Gloucester city centre communities.

• In Barton and Tredworth, disproportionality was lower than the county as a whole, with Black and Mixed Ethnicity people twice as likely to be stopped and searched as a White person, based on the population of ethnic groups in that area.

• Over half of all stop searches (52%) followed a report of an incident.

• Suspicion of the possession of controlled drugs formed the basis of the majority of stop searches (69%). The next most common reasons were in relation to possession of a weapon (11%) and stolen property (11%).

• 16% of stop searches led to an arrest, 28% resulted in a ‘find’.

• A higher proportion of people stopped and searched were aged between 19 to 30 years old and were male.

• Only two complaints were received by the Constabulary in relation to stop searches in 2019 and one of these related to officers from a neighbouring force.

• The report also highlights that a person in Gloucestershire is consistently less likely to be subject to stop and search powers than a person in the rest of England and Wales, regardless of ethnicity.

• It recommends further analysis in a number of areas to improve understanding of how stop and search is being used.

• In response to this report, and to a national report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire Services (HMICFRS), the force say they implement a series of actions based on reccomendations.

• What's going to improve?

• Adding to its stop and search form to allow officers to record if a stop search relates to drugs supply or drugs possession.

• Adding to the stop and search form to make sure the force can identify all stop and search incidents where force has been used.

• Adding extra ethnicity categories to the stop and search form to ensure the ethnicity of more people who are stopped and searched is captured.

• Continuing work with the Community Legitimacy Panel made up of people from ethnically diverse communities in the county.

• Assistant Chief Constable Rhiannon Kirk said: "Stop and search is a vital tool in combatting crime - it's used most for drugs offences but it has also been important in the battle against knife crime.

• "Our arrest and find rates may look low in terms of percentages but they are in line with other forces and it's important to remember that a stop and search where we don't find something can be as good a result as when we do find something. It means that person may be exonerated without the need for arrest.

• "But it's vital people have confidence in us and don't feel unfairly targeted.

• "These reports raise some important questions around disproportionality in the figures and if we are using stop and search as effectively as we can.

• "We don't have all the answers yet but I strongly believe we are on the right path. I am determined to improve the tools we have at our disposal to get to the heart of the issue and continue the open conversations we've been having with our ethnically diverse communities that are so important to ensuring fairness and equality."

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