His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has released findings from its review of crime data recorded during 2021-22. The analysis, focusing on cases where a victim's identity was known, revealed notable gaps: ethnicity was unrecorded in 61% of cases, sex in 26%, and age in 27%.
Despite ongoing efforts by police to address racial disparities in stop and search practices, these gaps hinder the ability of law enforcement to accurately assess crime's impact across different demographic groups.
Minority Backgrounds Experience Differences
Where available data was examined, it showed distinct variations in how ethnic minorities are treated compared to their White counterparts.
Notably, individuals from minority backgrounds were less likely to receive a caution than White individuals in 16 of the 17 police forces that supplied data. Since cautions offer an alternative to criminal records, monitoring the fairness and consistency of such decisions remains crucial.
Need for Further Investigation
HMICFRS emphasized that while disparity in data does not directly equate to discrimination
HMICFRS emphasized that while disparity in data does not directly equate to discrimination, it should prompt further examination. The inspectorate called for updated and implemented strategies to address race and policing challenges, highlighting inadequate leadership from government and senior police officials.
Wendy Williams, His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, pointed out the life-changing consequences of daily police decisions and the worrying lack of fair and consistent data collection within the criminal justice system.
Recommendations for Improvement
The inspectorate's analysis led to several recommendations aimed at enhancing the recording and analysis of race-related data in criminal justice. Among the recommendations is a call for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), Home Office, and Ministry of Justice to establish an action plan to better manage police criminal justice race disparity data.
Additionally, Chief constables are urged to thoroughly analyze race disparities in police decision-making and react accordingly if minority groups are disproportionately impacted.
Race and Policing Strategy
The NPCC and College of Policing are also encouraged to finalize and implement the Police Race Action Plan promptly. Also suggested is the publication of the updated 2018–2025 diversity, equality, and inclusion strategy.
Wendy Williams highlighted the importance of understanding why disparities exist and stressed the need for transparency to build public confidence in police forces. Data collection and public involvement are crucial to ensuring trust and accountability among all communities.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) reviewed crime data recorded during 2021-22, where a victim was identified, and found that in 61% of cases the victim’s ethnicity was not recorded, in 26% sex wasn’t recorded, and in 27% the age wasn’t stated.
The inspectorate said that while the police have done much work in recent years to identify race disparity in stop and search, in too many areas, forces are unable to accurately assess the full impact of crime on, or the quality of their service to, people from different demographic groups.
This is despite numerous previous warnings from the inspectorate about the problem.
Minority backgrounds
There were clear differences between the experiences of people from different ethnic backgrounds
Where data was recorded, there were clear differences between the experiences of people from different ethnic backgrounds.
For example, people from ethnic minority backgrounds were less likely than White people to receive a caution in 16 out of the 17 forces that gave HMICFRS data.
Cautions provide an opportunity for offences to be dealt with while avoiding a person being given a criminal record. It is therefore important that forces monitor whether decisions about cautions, and other criminal justice decisions, are being made fairly and consistently.
Further investigation
Evidence of disparity isn’t in itself evidence of discrimination, it should warrant further investigation
The inspectorate said that while evidence of disparity isn’t in itself evidence of discrimination, it should warrant further investigation.
HMICFRS also said that strategies designed to tackle race and policing issues needed to be finalized or updated, and then implemented by police forces.
The inspectorate criticized insufficient leadership from central government departments and senior police officers on race disparity in the police’s criminal justice decision-making.
Race and policing
The inspectorate looked at race and policing in two reports, and made a series of recommendations, including:
- The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the Home Office, and the Ministry of Justice should create an action plan to ensure information on police criminal justice race disparity is better gathered, analysed, scrutinized, and published.
- Chief constables should make sure that forces carry out a comprehensive analysis of race disparity in police criminal justice decision-making. Where this analysis indicates that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are disproportionately affected, police forces should explain, or revise, their ways of working.
- The NPCC and the College of Policing should finalize and publish the Police Race Action Plan, and forces should implement this plan without delay.
- The NPCC and the College of Policing should publish the revised 2018–2025 diversity, equality and inclusion strategy.
Life-changing consequences
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, Wendy Williams, said: “Some of the decisions that the police make daily about criminal justice matters can have life-changing consequences for the people concerned.”
“So it is extremely worrying that the police and wider criminal justice system are failing to gather and publish information about whether these police decisions are being made fairly and consistently.”
Confidence of all communities
“Where we do have data, there are clear differences between the experiences of people from different ethnic backgrounds,” continued Wendy Williams, adding “We know, for example, that children from ethnic minority backgrounds are disproportionately represented in youth custody – and this disparity has been getting larger over the past decade. It is essential that the police understand why these disparities exist.”
“To gain the trust and confidence of all communities, police forces need to gather this information, make it easily available, and encourage the public to help scrutinize it.”
