Ethnic minorities five times more likely to be stopped by West Mercia Police

The ratio is considerably higher than for the neighbouring Dyfed-Powys force, where the ethnic minorities are twice as likely to be stopped.

But Shropshire’s police chief has vigorously denied that race had any bearing on who was stopped, and said stop-and-search was a vital tool in disrupting crime.

Data released by the West Mercia force shows that 4,056 stop and searches were carried out between August 2017 and July this year, the most recent 12 months for which data is available.

The figures show that in the cases where the ethnicity of the suspect was recorded by officers, 18.4 per cent were from minority backgrounds, compared to just 3.8 per cent of area’s population who identify themselves as coming from such a background.

No ethnicity data was recorded in two per cent of cases.

In Dyfed-Powys the figures showed that of 2,403 searches carried out, 3.9 per cent were on members of ethnic minorities, compared to two per cent of the population who described themselves as from minority backgrounds.

No ethnicity data was recorded in four per cent of cases.

'Not about race'

Commander of police in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Chief Superintendent Kevin Purcell, said race had not bearing whatsoever on why people were stopped by police.

“Stop and search is absolutely not about race,” he said.

“It is a useful tool to help police prevent and detect crime and plays a vital role in helping keep our communities even safer.

“Across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin our use of stop and search is closely scrutinised by our independent advisory groups. These are made up of volunteers from our local communities, they are independent of police and in essence reflect the people we serve.

"Every stop and search that is carried out is presented to the group who will dip sample a number to scrutinise even further and feedback any concerns they may have about its use, or the evidence provided by the officer who carried out the stop and search.

“Of course, it is important we get stop and search right and we constantly look at ways we can improve and be even better at what we do which is why we value this independent scrutiny and I hope that this independence reassures members of the public about our use of stop and search.”

Across England and Wales, there were fewer than 270,000 stop and searches conducted by police over the last year. Use of the powers peaked in 2008 and 2009, with 1.5 million searches.

stop and searches conducted by police over the last year. Use of the powers peaked in 2008 and 2009, when 1.5 million were carried out each year.