Stop and Search

The force has a commitment to becoming more open and transparent. Part of this is being better at sharing and engaging on some of the powers that our police officers use to keep people safe, and that includes Stop and Search.

We believe that greater scrutiny will further ensure that our use of these is right and proper.

What are we searching for?

Portsmouth officers carry out more pro-active drug searches linked to supply than anywhere else in the county.

This quarter has seen the use of stop search increase to 529 due to a number of pro-active operations across the City. 59.5% of all searches were in relation to drug offences, this level remains consistent for the city. There is an arrest rate of 11.9% of all stop and searches.

Is our use of Stop and Search in Portsmouth proportionate?

During the last quarter, our data has shown that a black person is 1.5 times more likely to be stopped in Portsmouth than a white person is. 68.4% of all stop searches where on a white person, 4.2% were on a black person and 5.5% were on an Asian person. Our disproportionality levels remain under constant review for lawfulness and proportionality.

Our disproportionality levels remain under constant review for lawfulness and proportionality. Stop searches are reviewed by members of our independent advisory group, the group randomly select searches to scrutinise and on their last review process found the search powers used were proportionate and justified based on the information recorded.

We understand that this disproportionality will be a concern to people, and we are constantly working to review and understand this. A cross-section of stops also gets reviewed by the District's Independent Advisory Group, to ensure stops being carried our are lawful.

Where can I find more information about Stop and Search in Portsmouth?

You can see more about the numbers by looking at the infographic, below. We have also provided the same data in a different format if that is easier for you.

Where can I find previous quarterly data for Portsmouth?

If you want to take a look at data from previous quarters for the Portsmouth district, then you can find it here.

What is the Portsmouth Independent Advisory Group (IAG) and what do they do?

Each quarter, members of our community meet as part of our IAG to discuss stop and search within the district and conduct a dip sample of searches to ensure they are lawful and proportionate.

Along with this, they will also take a look at locations where there have been a number of stops and individuals who have been stopped multiple times.

As part of our continued commitment to ensuring our use of the Stop and Search powers available to us and the scrutiny of this are transparent, we are now publishing notes from our IAG meetings.

These notes are anonymised, but we hope will help show what our group does. We are keen to broaden this group further and get the views of our community, in particular those with direct experience of stop and search.

If you wish to find out more or join our IAG, you can email [email protected]