10:40am Saturday 20th March 2010
BEXLEY police have taken the most balanced approach to stop and search in the whole of London, according to an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The commission has been looking at police forces across England and Wales to see how they are using their powers to stop people in the street if they have a good reason, and to question and search them.
It says nationally, black people are six times more likely to be stopped than a white person and Asian people twice as likely.
But the commission’s investigation showed in Bexley for every white person stopped there were 1.6 black people and 0.9 Asians.
The overall stop and search rate in Bexley was 53 per 1,000 people, compared with a top rate in Westminster of 187.6 per 1,000.
Fo every 1,000 white people in Bexley, 51.9 were stopped and searched, compared with 83.6 per 1,000 black people and 47.4 per 1,000 Asians.
In Westminster, the comparative figures were 129 white people, 750.4 black people and 150 Asians.
The commission says it is writing to those police forces with the most disproportionate use of stop and search powers, to warn them of possible breaches of the Race Relations Act.
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