Can police training reduce ethnic/racial disparities in stop and search? Evidence from a multisite UK trial

• Author: Banos Alexandrou,Joel Miller,Paul Quinton,Daniel Packham
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12524
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Date: 01 November 2020

DOI: ./- .

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

TACKLING DISPARITY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Can police training reduce ethnic/racial

disparities in stop and search? Evidence from a

multisite UK trial

Joel Miller1Paul Quinton2Banos Alexandrou3

Daniel Packham4

School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers

University, Newark, New Jersey, USA

College of Policing, London, UK

The Research Advisory Service, London,

UK

Foreign, Commonwealthand

Development Office, London, UK

Correspondence

PaulQuinton, College of Policing, London,

UK.

Email:Paul.Quinton@college.pnn.

police.uk

Fundinginformation

Equalityand Human Rights Commission;

Collegeof Policing

Research Summary: This study examines the effects

of a -day pilot training program on ethnic/racial bias

in police use of stop and search powers, using a ran-

domized controlled trial in six diverse agencies in Eng-

land. We theorized the training could reduce officer

bias by improving their competence to apply legiti-

mate criteria in search decisions, and/or by reduc-

ing their reliance on ethnic/racial stereotypes. Survey

results showed the training improved officers’ knowl-

edge of stop and search regulations, made them more

selective in declared search intentions in hypothetical

scenarios, and reduced their support for ethnic/racial

stereotyping in policing. While it showed no effects on

the ethnic/racial patterns of search intentions in survey

scenarios, there was no survey evidence of bias against

black people in the scenarios, even in the absence of

training. Police search records revealed no clear train-

ing effects on recorded street-level behaviors, whether

in relation to the frequency of searches, the strength of

grounds for suspicion, or their ethnic/racial patterning.

Policy implications: A -day police training program

to reduce ethnic/racial bias may change officers’ knowl-

edge and attitudes but, on its own, may not be suffi-

cient to impact their street-level behaviors. Training is

probably most effective as part of a package of reforms,

and particularly when it: involves sufficient “dosage”;

Criminology & Public Policy. ;:–. ©  American Society of Criminology 1259wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/capp

1260 MILLER  .

addresses the mechanisms contributing to disparities

beyond individual officer decisions; deploys active learn-

ing approaches; uses demonstration, modeling and feed-

back; and pays attention to participant engagement and

reinforcement before and after the scheduled training.

KEYWORDS

randomized trial, police, training, implicit bias, stop and search,

ethnic/race disproportionality

1 INTRODUCTION

In the United Kingdom, public debates about ethnic and racial bias in policing have heavily

focused on “stop and search.” For many years, these intrusive encounters have disproportion-

ately targeted members of minority ethnic communities, and black people in particular (Bowl-

ing & Phillips, ; Bradford, ; Delsol & Shiner, ; Shiner, Carre, Delsol, & Eastwood,

). Unsurprisingly, thishas been a cause of profound resentment among these groups, and has

prompted periodic calls for reform of these powers (Bowling & Phillips, ; Delsol & Shiner,

; Miller, ).

The current study examines findings from a randomized controlled trial of a -daypilot stop and

search training program. Targetedat frequent users of search powers in six diverse police agencies

in England in , the training sought to strengthen the foundations of officers’ use of stop and

search, and focused on topics including unconscious bias, reasonable grounds for suspicion, and

strategies for conducting stop and search encounters.

Specifically, the current article examines the impact of training on patterns of ethnic/racial

bias in searches. It does this by examining how training affected officers’ knowledge, attitudes

and anticipated behaviors as well as the number, grounds, and ethnic patterns of the searches

they conducted. It also identifies lessons that are potentially relevant to efforts to design police

training to address similar issues in the future. The study is the first we are aware of to test the

effects of training on patterns of ethnic/racial bias in recorded street-level behavior.

2BACKGROUND

The term “stop and search” is used to describe a variety of police-initiated contacts with mem-

bers of the public. These include a range of “voluntary” nonstatutory encounters in which police

officers call people to account, statutory vehicle stops, as well as officers’ use of statutory powers

to detain members of the public to search for certain illegal items. The latter represent the most

intrusive of stop and search encounters, and form the primary focus of this article. Hereafter,we

refer to them as “searches.”

Police officers in England and Wales have several powers that allow them to search people

or vehicles for stolen or prohibited articles, and which are regulated by provisions in the 

Police and Criminal Evidence Act (hereafter“PACE”). The most common types of search (and the

focus of the current article) require “reasonable grounds for suspicion”and are used to find items