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

• DOI: 10.3818/JRP.4.1.2002.143
• Author: Paul Quinton,Joel Miller,Nick Bland
• Published date: 01 December 2002
• Date: 01 December 2002
• Subject Matter: Article

Measuring Stops and searches • 143

*Measuring Stops and Searches:

Lessons From U.K. Home Office Research

Joel Miller Nick Bland

Vera Institute of Justice Scottish Executive, Edinburgh

Paul Quinton

Home Office, London

JUSTICE RESEARCH AND POLICY, Vol. 4, Special Issue, Fall 2002

© 2002 Justice Research and Statistics Association

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, Meet-

ing of the Committee to Review Research on Police Policy and Practices, Washington

DC, on April 11, 2002.

*Abstract

This article describes an evaluation of a new 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

(“disproportionality”). The evaluation shows 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 high-

lights different strengths and weaknesses of both types of ethnic monitoring. The article

also explores public satisfaction with the new system of recording, noting that people

typically did not understand the purpose of the form at the time they received it. The

research into disproportionality explored 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 shows that available

populations were very different from resident populations. Overall, the findings sug-

gested no general pattern of bias in stops and searches against people from minority

ethnic groups. The research also finds that while stops and searches tended to be tar-

geted at areas that have higher than average proportions of residents from minority

ethnic groups, this largely reflected patterns of crime.