Stand Up To Racism Dorset has received “sincere apologies” from Dorset Police after campaigners complained of racial profiling by the force on social media.
When Weymouth and Portland police used an image of a young Black man to accompany a Facebook post on “county lines” drug dealing, Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) wrote to the Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset. SUTR said that the image gave an unjustifiable message – that young Black men are responsible for drug trafficking.
Mary Mullett of SUTR says that the image encouraged “the very kind of divisive racism that the police should be working to eradicate”. She demanded that it should be removed immediately from social media and there should be a full public apology from the police to Dorset’s Black communities and to all who oppose racism.
If the image was deliberately posted by local police, said Mary Mullett, it went a long way to explaining why Dorset has highest rate of Stop and Search for Black people in the whole country.
In response Deputy Chief Constable Scott Chilton says that the image was taken from a poster designed by the Home Office to highlight victims of crime, adding: “We acknowledge in wishing to highlight these dangers the use of this image has not universally been interpreted as intended. I would like to offer our sincere apologies to yourself and others who were negatively impacted.” He assured Stand Up To Racism that the image had been removed and that Dorset Police would not use it again.
The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset has said that it was “disappointed” to see the use of the image and is working with the Dorset force to improve its record on Stop and Search.
Mary Mullet says: “We hope never again to see such an inappropriate image circulated by Dorset Police. In 2018/9 Dorset had the highest rate of interception of Black people under Stop and Search in the whole of England and Wales, at 62 per thousand. The figure is particularly striking given statistics for other forces in the South West. In Hampshire the rate was 38 per thousand; in Devon and Cornwall 19 per thousand; in Avon and Somerset 18 per thousand; and in Wiltshire 12 per thousand.* The national average was 19 per thousand. What explains the rate in Dorset?
“According to government figures, in London Black people were intercepted under Stop and Search at five times the rate of white people. This in itself is a disturbing discrepancy – but in Dorset, where the proportion of Black people in our communities is a fraction of that in the capital, Black people were arrested at 25 times the rate of white people.”
Mary Mullett added: “We are keenly interested to hear the explanations of Dorset Police for these extraordinary statistics.”
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