Posted on: 30 September 2024

Data published by Gov.uk highlights the disparities in stop and search practices across different ethnic groups and regions.

In the year ending March 31 2023, there were 529,474 stop and searches conducted in England and Wales, which equates to 8.9 stop and searches for every 1,000 people. This is a significant decrease from 24.8 per 1,000 people in 2010.

However, black people were stopped and searched at a rate of 24.5 per 1,000 compared to 5.9 per 1,000 for white people, highlighting significant disparities.

Across England and Wales, 33% of all stop and searches occurred in the Metropolitan Police area. However, with 36.4 stop and searches per 1,000 people, Merseyside had the highest rate overall, leading across all ethnic groups except for Asian, where Cumbria had the highest rate.

In 20.5% of stop and searches, ethnicity was not recorded, which therefore makes the true extent of these disparities hard to measure.

About this map

This visualisation uses our Police Force Area map template. The data from Gov.uk was published 03/07/2024 for the period April 2022 – March 2023.

The data utilise the 2021 Census for population estimates.