Black people in Nottinghamshire more than three times as likely to be arrested as white people

Civil lobbying charity Liberty, which campaigns for justice and equality, accused the police of acting unjustly towards ethnic minorities and called on the Government to reduce police powers.

Home Office figures show 686 arrests of black people were made in Nottinghamshire in 2020-21.

This equated to an estimated 25.1 arrests per 1,000 black people in the area, based on population figures from the 2011 census.

In contrast, there were just 7.6 arrests per 1,000 white people, meaning a black person was 3.3 times more likely to be arrested.

Arrest rates were down from 2019-20 – before the coronavirus pandemic led to a fall in overall crime – when 37 arrests per 1,000 black people and 10.1 per 1,000 white people were made.

Across England and Wales, black people were 3.3 times more likely to be arrested than white people in 2020-21.

Emmanuelle Andrews, Liberty policy and campaigns manager, said the figures ‘highlight the injustices black communities face across the criminal justice system’.

However, the Home Office says ‘more is being done in policing than ever before to ensure everyone is treated fairly and without prejudice’.

Habib Kadiri, research and policy manager at StopWatch, an anti stop-and-search charity, said the racial disparity in arrests is ‘symptomatic of an attitude that excuses the disproportionate targeting of black people under the guise they are more likely to be involved in violence and drug crime’.

Separate Home Office figures show there were 52.6 stop and searches for every 1,000 black people across England and Wales in 2020-21, compared with just 7.5 per 1,000 white people, meaning a black person is more than seven times more likely to be stopped.

In Nottinghamshire, 14 stop and searches per 1,000 black people were carried out, compared with 2.9 per 1,000 white people.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Every knife taken off our streets is a potential life saved, with 16,000 dangerous weapons removed from the streets and almost 81,000 arrests made last year because of stop and search.

“No-one should be stopped because of their race, but tragically data shows young black men are disproportionately more likely to be the victims of knife crime.”

Nottinghamshire Police have been approached for comment.