More street searches target minorities

The proportion of black and Asian Londoners being stopped and searched has grown over the last five years, despite a major fall in the overall number of searches.

Searches in the Metropolitan area fell from more than 335,000 in 1997 to under 178,000 last year, and there has been a significant drop in the number of people arrested after searches.

But the number of black people arrested after being stopped and searched has barely changed - from 9,965 in 1997 to 9,896 last year.

This meant that the percentage of arrests involving black people rose by 2.3 per cent to 34.4 over the five years.

Arrests of Asian people rose from 2,726 to 3,076 - from 7.5 per cent of all arrests to 10.7 per cent.

The Scotland Yard figures run counter to claims that the Met has stopped fewer members of ethnic minorities in the wake of the Macpherson inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence case.