Numbers of People Stopped in Vehicle Only Searches by Ethnicity Since 2017

Publication Number: 1520

FOI Number: 17802

Disclosure:

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities:    

   Unless exemptions apply, the first duty (at Section 1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held.   

The second duty (at Section 1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.    

However, where exemptions are relied upon (Section 17 of FOIA), there is a requirement to provide the applicant with an explanation either:  

1. a) stating the fact 
2. b) detailing the exemption(s) in question and
3. c) why the exemption applies (if not apparent).

Information Request  

• Since 2017, have you collected any data on the number of people stopped*, by ethnicity, in vehicle only searches?
• Please provide the number of people stopped*, by ethnicity, in vehicle only searches, each year since 2017.
• If this is not available, please provide total counts of people stopped*, by ethnicity, in vehicle only searches, for the entire period or any portion of this period for which data exist.
• Did or do these data form part of any pilot scheme? If so, please provide any concluding or interim reports published alongside the data.

* please indicate whether figures include drivers, passengers, or both

FOI Duty  

First Duty – Essex Police holds some of the information relating to your request 

Second Duty – See below 

Fact - It is not possible to extract and verify all the data in your request 

Exemption - Section 12(1) 

Refusal - Section 17(5) of FOIA 

Reasoning – In respect of this data request, the Essex Police Performance Analysis Unit can only provide data from July 2021 as the Business Objects Universe which provided this data prior to this date is no longer accessible.  The data has been reported for vehicle only and combined (person and vehicle) stops.  Essex Police are unable to indicate from readily extractable data reports whether the person(s) are driver, passenger(s) or both as there no data fields within the recording systems to denote this person type.

Each case file of relevance would need to be manually reviewed in order to determine more background details around each case, that is to say the status of the person(s) associated with the case.   To carry out this review across the time frame of this request and to extract data and further accurately filter out those relevant to this request and under the timescales of the FOI act would be excessive, further explanatory notes are set out below.  

Duty to assist – When refusing a request on cost (Section 12(1)/12(2)), outside of the act and in effort to assist we can provide the following

Essex Police can report as follows:

Caveat: The data is correct as at 22/02/2023.

Notes:

Essex Police Performance Analysis Unit can only provide data from July 2021 as the Business Objects Universe which provided this data prior to this date is no longer accessible.

The data has been reported for vehicle only and combined (person and vehicle) stops.

Essex Police are unable to indicate from readily extractable data reports whether those persons are driver, passengers or both.

The following table provides the available data, which was not part of any pilot scheme:

Total	869	654	1774	1590	136	189
	From Jul 2021 - 32 Dec 2021		01 Jan 2022 - 31 Dec 2022		01 Jan 2023 - 31 Jan 2023
	Combined	Vehicle	Combined	Vehicle	Combined	Vehicle
African	11	9	39	17	5	3
Any Other Asian Background	23	10	40	21	4	2
Any Other Black Background	38	9	65	39	2	8
Any Other Ethnic Group	17	13	49	30	2	6
Any Other White Background	79	28	180	90	8	12
Arab			3	3
Bangladeshi	6	1	18	7		2
Caribbean	12	8	18	11	1	1
Gypsy or Irish Traveller	2	2	18	6	1
Indian	7	2	10	6		1
Not Recorded	199	277	335	627	37	96
Pakistani	14	5	11	8	1	2
White / Asian	4	2	7	8
White / Black African	1	3	2	1
White / Black Caribbean	5	4	6	2	2
White British	448	279	964	707	70	56
White Irish	3	2	9	7	3

Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.