One has to marvel at the media reaction to the police stop and search
statistics. The figure for "Blacks are 8 times more likely to be stopped and
searched" is based on the number of black people stopped and searched as a
proportion of their numbers in the population. But here is the rub, they
match exactly their rates of offending:

"714,000 stops and searches were recorded on persons by the police under a
range of legislation including the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE)
of which 12% were of black people, 6% Asian and 1% 'other' ethnic origin.
Black people were 8 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white
people. ...Published research by the Home Office has indicated that resident
population figures give a poor indication of the population observed in
public places when and where police carry out searches, and therefore do not
provide a good basis for assessing ethnic biases in officer search practice"

Stop and Search is used against street crime and mugging. Approximately 80%
of street crimes and muggings are carried out by blacks. Using exactly the
same statistical logic used in the figures above, we see that blacks
are...you guessed it....8 times more likely to commit street crimes than
whites. Lo and behold, that matched exactly with the stop and search rates!
Could there be a link?

What about arrested arising from Stop and Searches? 12 percent of black stop
and search suspects are subsequently arrested for notifiable offence. For
whites the figure is 7%. This shows that despite being stopped at a higher
rate, the accuracy of the stop and searches is better for blacks. In short,
it is whites who are more often stopped when they are innocent.

Perhaps it would help if we represented some of the other Home Office
statistics in the same way as the Stop and Search statistics.

The following figures are corroborated by the statistics on prison numbers:

Arrests for notifiable offences 2000/2001
 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/s95racetables0001.xls

[Blacks make up 2% of the UK population. Whites make up just over 93%]

Violence against the person
Whites: 86.5% Blacks 7.2%
Blacks over three times 'more likely' to commit violence against the person.
According to prison population figures they are 5 times 'more likely'.

Sexual offences
Whites: 83.5% Blacks: 8.0%
Blacks four times 'more likely' to commit sexual offences. These are
reflected exactly in prison population figures (8%).

Robbery
Whites 62.4% Blacks 29.9%
Blacks fifteen times 'more likely' to commit robbery. This is crucial when
we look at the stop and search rates. To reach parity with offending and
arrest rates, officers would have to stop black suspects at a rate of 15
times that of whites. As it is they stop and search at half that rate. The
prison figures are slightly lower than the arrest rates, coming in at a mere
20% or 10 times 'more likely'.

Burglary
Whites 89.9% Blacks 6.3%
Blacks three times 'more likely' to commit burglary. The prison rates show
slight increase on the arrest figures at 7.5%.

Theft and handling
Whites 88.0% Blacks 6.7%
Blacks three times 'more likely' to commit theft and handling. The prison
rates reflect this nearly exactly (7%).

Fraud and forgery
Whites 73.6% Blacks 13.2%
Blacks over six times 'more likely' to commit fraud and forgery. This again
is reflected exactly in the prison statistics (13.5%).

Criminal damage
Whites 91.1% Blacks 4.9%
Blacks over twice as likely to commit criminal damage. Criminal damage is
not listed in the prison statistics.

Drugs
Whites 82.6% Blacks 10.5%
Black are five times 'more likely' to commit drugs offences. The prison
statistics double this to 22%. Making the black 'more likely' tally 10
times.

[ Source:  http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/s95racetables0001.xls Sheet
5.5. For the Prison figures referred to above see Sheet 8.5]

So there you have it folks, the brutal truth. The stop and search rate is
less than it should be assuming offences not politics were the only
consideration.

There is nothing to suggest that there is any bias at all in how the police
have used this tactic. It is shameful that politicians have not come to the
aid of the police by stating the obvious (as captured in the figures) and
being brave enough to take on the race lobby.