Lincolnshire Police
About this force
| Chief constable | Neil Rhodes |
|---|---|
| Area | 2,284 square miles |
| Recording stop and account? | Yes |
About the PCC in this area
| Police & Crime Commissioner | Marc Jones (Conservative) |
|---|---|
| Email address | lincolnshire-pcc@lincs.pnn.police.uk |
| PCC website | Visit website |
| PCC's crime plan | Read |
How many searches do police do?
April 2015 – March 2016
The police conducted 3,675 stop and searches under PACE Section 1 across the area covered by Lincolnshire Police.
This was a reduction of 38% from the previous year.
There were 317 stop and searches under Section 60 Criminal Justice & Public Order Act, a power which doesn’t require individual reasonable suspicion.
This was an increase of 3422% from the previous year.
April 2014 – March 2015
The police conducted 5,921 stop and searches under PACE Section 1 across the area covered by Lincolnshire Police.
This was a reduction of 35% from the previous year.
There were 9 stop and searches under Section 60 Criminal Justice & Public Order Act, a power which doesn’t require individual reasonable suspicion.
This was an increase of 29% from the previous year.
Stop and account
Lincolnshire Police record stop and accounts.
Lincolnshire is one of only nine police forces in England and Wales that record stop and accounts.
In 2013/14, a total of 1,314 recorded stop and accounts where carried out across Lincolnshire. Of these:
- 1,257 were of whites
- 8 were of blacks
- 6 were of Asians
- 8 were of people from mixed backgrounds
- 1 was of someone from a Chinese or other background
The numbers of accounts of those from non-white backgrounds are too low to provide any meaningful figures on stop and account disproportionality.
What are searches targeted at?
| Target | Proportion of searches |
|---|---|
| Drugs | 55% |
| Stolen property | 22% |
| Going equipped | 8% |
| Other | 6% |
| Offensive weapons | 6% |
| Firearms | 2% |
| Criminal damage | 0% |
How effective are police stop and searches?
Most searches conducted by police officers in Lincolnshire are for drugs rather than more serious or violent crime. In 2015/16, 55% of all searches were for drugs.
April 2015 – March 2016
8% of stop and searches conducted under PACE Section 1 lead to an arrest.
1% of stop and searches conducted under Section 60 Criminal Justice & Public Order Act lead to an arrest.
April 2014 – March 2015
8% of stop and searches conducted under PACE Section 1 lead to an arrest.
11% of stop and searches conducted under Section 60 Criminal Justice & Public Order Act lead to an arrest.
Who is getting searched?
Disproportionality has increased in Lincolnshire. In 2015/16, black people were stopped and searched at approximately three times the rate of white people and people from mixed backgrounds were searched at one and a half time the rate of whites. People from Asian, white or Chinese or other ethnicities are under-represented in searches.
There was a major expansion in the use of section 60, a power that does not require officers to suspect a person is carrying a weapon in order to search them. This was despite the number of searches under this power falling by 10% across the country. Compared to 9 searches carried out under this power in 2014/15, there were 317 recorded searches in 2015/16. Of these, 311 were searches of white people, 2 of blacks, 2 of mixed people and the ethnicity of the remaining 2 was not recorded. Only one of the total 317 searches resulted in an arrest and the person was white and the arrest was not the result of any weapon being found.
PACE disproportionality ratios
| Ethnic groups | Ratio |
|---|---|
| White : Black | 1 : 3.1 |
| White : Asian | 1: 0.7 |
| White : Mixed | 1: 1.5 |
| White : Other | 1 : 0.1 |