New figures revealing the reasons why police carry out a stop and search across Nottinghamshire have been published today.
The figures were published on the Home Office website for the first time today as part of a series of measures to reform police use of stop and search.
It means for the first time people can see details like the number of stop and searches, the outcomes and the proportion of these outcomes that were linked to the purpose of the search in their area. It also provides a breakdown of the ethnicity and age of people stopped and searched and the time of day stops are carried out on a monthly basis.
The data, provided by 40 forces, including the British Transport Police, will sit alongside and provide context to stop and search maps currently produced by 25 forces which includes Nottinghamshire Police. Using geo-mapping technology, these maps allow the public to see where stop and searches took place in their local area, the reason for the stop and outcome of the search.
Home Secretary Theresa May said: “Stop and search is undoubtedly an important police power, but when it is misused it can be counter-productive and an enormous waste of police time. If it is not operated in a targeted and proportionate way and if innocent people are stopped and searched for no good reason, it is hugely damaging to the relationship between the police and the public.
“The summary pages provide the public with a visual representation of how fairly and effectively stop and search is being used in individual police forces. This is a further step forward in the Government’s commitment to increasing the transparency of the police and ensuring the public can hold their force to account.”
