Measuring Stops and Searches: Lessons From U.K. Home Office Research

• NCJ Number: 199117
• Journal: Justice Research and Policy Volume: 4 Dated: Fall 2002 Pages: 143-156
• Author(s): Joel Miller; Paul Quinton; Nick Bland
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Test/Measurement; Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: This article is adapted from a paper prepared for the National Research Council, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Committee on Law and Justice, Meeting of the Committee to Review Research on Police Policy and Practices, Washington, DC, April 11, 2002

Annotation

This article describes an evaluation of a new British system of monitoring police stops and searches in five pilot police sites, along with related research on the disproportionate police stopping and searching of people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Abstract

The new system involved enhancing police record keeping for all stops and searches of citizens. Under this system, the police are required to make a record of all stops and searches of citizens; the record is to be given to the person stopped; and it should include the reason and outcome of the stop, as well as the citizen's description of his/her ethnic background. The main forms were given to the persons stopped, and tear-off records were kept by police officers for monitoring purposes. The evaluation of this new system for recording stops and searches involved interviews with over 100 police officers, supervisors, and managers at the beginning and end of the pilot period; approximately 340 hours of observation of routine patrol work across all sites; in-depth interviews with 55 people stopped or searched during the pilot period; 12 discussion groups with 104 people from the pilot sites; and statistics produced from the police records completed during the pilot period. The evaluation showed that the new monitoring is characterized by a substantial underrecording of encounters, notably of stops. A comparison of data from officer-defined and self-defined ethnic categories on stop-and-search forms showed different strengths and weaknesses of both types of ethnic monitoring. People typically did not understand the purpose of the form at the time they received it. The research into disproportionality examined the "available" populations on the street -- using video cameras mounted in moving vehicles -- and compared them with resident populations and with those stopped and searched. The research indicated that available populations were very different from resident populations. Overall, the findings suggested no general pattern of bias in stops and searches against people from minority ethnic groups. The research also found that although stops and searches tended to be targeted at areas that have higher than average proportions of minority residents, this largely reflected crime patterns. 3 tables, 2 figures, and 13 references