The Met police, the biggest force in the United Kingdom will begin recording the ethnicity of those they pull over while driving after a year of rising black lives matter protests and a series of cases last year in which people were stopped and found to be innocent. A study performed in London last year suggested that black individuals are significantly more likely to be stopped than caucasians. While police forces have always been required to record the ethnicity of people they stop on the street, the new pilot will require police to also record the ethnicity of those they pull over while driving. In addition to ethnicty, police will also record the location, time, sex, age of the driver, and the make and model of the vechile.
The initiative aims to identify and stop any alleged racial targeting or profiling. Met police commander, Kyle Gordon, said that they want for “all communities to have the same level of trust in us and for us to be the most trusted police service in the world”. He also stated that he believes mistrust makes it harder for the police to keep citizens safe through “a reluctance to share information, to report crime, or to support our work to tackle violence”. The pilot is one of many reforms on the police force by Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor. Khan has also asked Priti Sushil Patel, the home secretary to mandate that all forces within England and Wales implement the same pilot.
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