Methodology of results for demographic stops

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.038188

I note you seek access to the following information:

While conducting research, I came across the Met's dashboard for stops and searches. The data shows a demographic showed 51,240 stops and searches for Black individuals and 52,186 for White individuals this year.

In the demographics section, there is an option to view these numbers per 1,000 individuals. I attempted to calculate this myself, but my results differ from those presented on the dashboard. Could you please explain the methodology used to arrive at these figures?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

I have been told by our analysts that this report uses 2011 Census data.

This is held in 18+1 format and the recorded ethnic appearance of the Stop/Search (4+1) must be mapped to the appropriate 18+1 Census categories. The categories are mapped as follows:

White = White British, White Irish, White Gypsy or Irish Traveller, and any other White Background

Black = Black or Black British, Caribbean, African, Mixed White and Black Caribbean, Mixed White and Black African, and any other Black Background

Asian = Asian or Asian British Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Mixed White and Asian and any other Asian background.

Other = Arab, and any other Ethnic Group

We are currently updating the dashboard and trying to replicate it using 2021 census data so currently we advise not to use this dashboard for census related comparisons at this time.