• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Black people in West Midlands four times as likely to be stopped by police

The situation was described as ‘unacceptable’ by the region’s police and crime commissioner.

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2020-06-16 14:47
in News
Photo: PA

Photo: PA

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

A black person is almost four times more likely to be stopped and searched by police in the West Midlands than a white person, new data has shown.

An Asian person is two and a half times as likely to be stopped.

Black people were also disproportionately more likely to be subject to use of force, like being restrained, tasered or taken to the ground.

The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said the force-wide findings were “unsatisfactory”.

“It is not acceptable and needs to change,” he added.

Police numbers
David Jamieson (Aaron Chown/PA)

Concerns about racism have triggered demonstrations around the world, including the UK, following the death of George Floyd in the United States after his restraint by police officers.

Historic wrongs

In wider comments, the Chief Constable David Thompson apologised to the black community for historic wrongs by the force.

RelatedPosts

Mogg will be pleased! Government staff work in corridors over desks shortage

Good Friday agreement: People moved by Liam Neeson’s cameo in final episode of Derry Girls

Anger as Govt brands Disability News Service ‘vexatious’ for trying to acquire info on DWP deaths

BBC says govt took broadcaster to court to block story of MI5 agent using secret status to terrorise girlfriend

He added: “It’s not just about the past, I recognise we are not a service free from bias, discrimination or, on occasions, even racism.

“We reflect this imperfect society.”

The force data showed analysis of 11,064 stop and searches between January 1 and May 31 this year, and were presented to the PCC’s monthly strategic policing and crime board on Tuesday.

Of those searches, just over a quarter (26.9%) resulted in an arrest, a knife seizure, or other “positive outcome”.

The use of force statistics were based on 5,007 incidents in the same time period.

Birmingham knife attacks
Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, David Thompson (Richard Vernalls/PA)

More than 50% were classed as lower-level use like hand-cuffing “non-compliant” people, to higher level, including use of Pava incapacitant spray (4%), firearms either aimed or fired (3%), Taser deployment (2%), spit guard (2%) and baton-use (1%).

Analysis found use of force against black people was disproportionate (19% of incidents) when looked at against 2011 census data make-up (6%).

The report concluded: “The data shows use of force is disproportionate on the black community rather than the wider BAME community.

“The force cannot satisfactorily account for this and this warrants further assessment.”

Section 60

The report also found a black person was 6.7 times more likely to be stopped and searched under Section 60 rules – where an area has been defined for searches.

In recent months, such areas have been imposed following spikes in knife, gun and violent crime.

Knife crime
Just over a quarter of regional stop and search incidents resulted in a weapon seizure, arrest or other “positive outcome” (Hayden Smith/PA)

Mr Thompson added the powers were necessarily more widely used in higher-crime areas, which also had a more diverse population.

He said: “We are trying to police an unequal society, fairly.”

Mr Thompson added: “The consequential issue can be that policing is more prevalent in those areas and I think some people may feel over-policed.”

He said: “My sense is we’re minimal on the use of these powers, we’ve got control of them, we do have a level of scrutiny, we do have use of body-cam.”

However, data showed despite the force mandating use of body-worn video in all use of force incidents, stop and search, domestic incidents and mental health unit calls, the review found this was not the case.

Met police video camera trial
A body-worn video (BWV) camera (Yui Mok/PA)

The report concluded officers’ cameras were used in just over three quarters (77%) of documented use of force incidents, and about two-thirds (65.7%) of stop and searches.

Mr Thompson said: “It will never be 100% because there will be occasions when there are extenuating circumstances.

“Stop-search I am more concerned about.

“This enables us to shine a light in some teams now, to say ‘you just don’t seem to turn your body-cam on when you do a search?’

More work

“I think that is poor practice evidentially, let alone poor practice in terms of future relations and trust, so we definitely need to do more work in that area.”

Only last week, the force pledged to recruit more than 1,000 officers from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds in the next three years.

The force currently counts 10.9% of its officers from BAME communities.

The data also showed more young people aged 18-34 were stopped (63%) and the vast majority were males (87%).

The figures for those two categories on use of force were similar.

Related – ‘Daddy did such a good job’ – Patrick Hutchinson’s daughters’ pride

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Scuba diving gran’s near miss with huge barrel jellyfish off the coast of Cornwall

No progress on ‘Boris bridge’ across Irish Sea, minister confirms

Manchester City player’s time at club looks like it is coming to an end

Cleverly defends beleaguered boss Raab over Afghanistan collapse

Celtic fans tell Rod Stewart to f**k off after he congratulated Boris Johnson

After Farage’s antics MEPs hold hands and sing Auld Lang Syne to bid UK goodbye

Single shot of Pfizer jab gives high resistance, Israeli data reveals

Army’s new vehicles will be built in Spain using Swedish steel

‘Highest taxes since the war’: Papers report on PM’s broken manifesto pledges

The Horror of Fracking and Why We Can’t Regulate it – A Warning!!

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.