Police more likely to stop black people in Test Valley

Figures show that between April 2018 and March 2019 - the most recent available - 56 black people were stopped in the Test Valley district.

Whilst 306 white people were stopped during that time, when population data is accounted for, it works out that black people are disproportionately stopped more often than white people, by 18.4 times. This was the highest disproportionality of all Hampshire districts.

Across the county as a whole, black people are 9.1 times more likely to be stopped than their white counterparts, whilst a BME person is 3 times more likely to be stopped.

The Assistant Chief Constable for Hampshire Constabulary said that the force are “always looking to identify learning from this data”.

And a former magistrate in North Hampshire, Dan Putty, said he was not surprised to hear of these statistics.

“When I was sitting in court I have seen so many of them coming through the courts,” he told the Advertiser.

“The breakdown of this data shows the disproportionality of ethnic people to the overall population in the stop and search by the police force in Basingstoke.

“I hope that this can be justified at all levels of scrutiny.”

In neighbouring Basingstoke, black people are 16.9 times more likely to be stopped, whilst in Winchester, the figure is 10.1.

And of all 14 Hampshire districts, including Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, in 2018-19 black people were stopped at a disproportionally higher rate in all.

Hampshire Constabulary pointed out that the data is compared to population data taken from the 2011 census, with demographics changing slightly since then.

Assistant Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said: “Stop and search is an important part of our community policing, and helps us protect our communities, particularly vulnerable members of them.

“We take an intelligence-based approach to this, using information supplied to us from the community to tackle high-harm crimes, such as drug-related harm, theft and the use of weapons.

“Its effectiveness relies on the power being used in the right way. In our Basingstoke and Test Valley districts, we have seen the information provided to us lead to a number of stops of people who are not residents of the area.

“These stops are often part of our priority to identify and prevent the harm caused by county lines drug activity

“Both districts have also seen a large percentage of these stops resulting in penalty notices, summons and arrests, with Test Valley recording 70 per cent in the last quarterly figures and Basingstoke 45 per cent.

“Policing is complex and challenging. It is right that all that we do should be thoroughly scrutinised and we welcome this.

“Whenever stop and search powers are used, it must be done so in line with national guidance, where there are reasonable grounds for suspicion and where it is proportionate.

“Each quarter, a group of officers, staff and members of our Independent Advisory Group meet to review our stop and search data.

“We are always looking to identify learning from this data, including from reviewing disproportionality figures, and develop our use of police street powers, where required, ensuring fairness to those who are the subject of them.

“Policing in our country is built on the principle of doing so by consent, and although much has changed in the way we operate over the years and will continue to do so, it is important to our officers to work hard to build up trust and support within their communities.

“This is something we are committed to continuing and we welcome all feedback on how we can do so.

“As part of this, we welcome anyone who wishes to join our Independent Advisory Group, to help us continue to build partnerships with our communities.”