Thirty Years of Police Stops: Findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales

Abstract

Trends in police stop and search of pedestrians and motor vehicles are examined using data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) from 1982 to 2010. The average number of stops per survey year stood at 215.7 (SD = 62.3) compared with 26.7 (SD = 8.5) for searches per 1,000 of the population. From the late 1980s onwards, the distribution of police stops and searches decreased. There were steep declines in the number of stops after 1997 (following the Stephen Lawrence enquiry), but some increases in pedestrian stops have been evident since 2001 (possibly owing to new terrorist concerns). The likelihood of a search resulting from a stop decreased from 28 to 23 per cent from the 1990s to the 2000s for pedestrians, but remained stable at around 10 per cent for motor vehicles. The arrest yield of police stops and searches was low, but it was evident that pedestrian encounters were more investigative in nature than motor vehicle encounters, as it appeared that police officers were more inclined to ask those stopped on foot further questions. By contrast, the police tactic was targeted towards motorists who had committed some form of motoring offence. However, it is apparent that police stops are very unevenly distributed. Each year, the majority of all stops are repeats of the same pedestrians or vehicles, and a small proportion are stopped frequently. Findings from the 2010/11 CSEW showed that around 9.8 per cent of persons stopped on foot accounted for 81.7 per cent of stops, and around 4.8 per cent of stopped vehicles for 62.0 per cent of stops (two or more stops). Further research and policy attention to the repetitive nature of stops and searches is warranted.