A BRADFORD charity claims that "systematic racial bias" is present in police forces across the country, following the release of its new report on mobile fingerprinting.

The Racial Justice Network (RJN) - which has an office on North Parade and in Leeds - has criticised the "unethical and targeted use of mobile fingerprint scanners" by police, arguing that the practice embeds racial profiling.

The RJN found that Arab people are 'stopped and scanned' at a significantly higher rate than white people are, while black people, South Asian people and East Asian people are also targeted more often.

In its report, the charity says "for every white, North European person stopped and scanned in every 10,000 people, 48 Arabic people are scanned on average across the police jurisdictions", adding that "similarly, 14 black residents are scanned for every white North European, 14 Asian people and almost four Chinese people or two South East Asian people."

The data was obtained after the RJN submitted freedom of information requests to police forces across the country. 27 forces responded, while 17 refused or did not respond.

Police can 'stop and scan' people if they have committed or are suspected of committing an offence, or if a person refuses to give their name or is suspected of providing a false name.

West Yorkshire Police was the first police force in the country to use mobile fingerprinting, after it launched an initial three-month pilot in 2018.

Between March 2019 and June 2020, police in West Yorkshire carried out 1,472 mobile fingerprint scans, according to the report, which was the fourth-highest over this period out of the police forces which provided this data.

"Very few police forces disaggregated the reason why they executed a stop and scan", the report adds, with "only five forces providing data for this question".

"Surrey Police disclosed 318 checks were made specifically because of an immigration reason. This indicates the police have fully taken on board immigration and border guard duties, and immigration alone can be a justification for police enforcement", the RJN also says, arguing "the link between immigration and criminalisation is being exacerbated by scanning technology."

The report adds that 'stop and scan' practices can create distrust between the police and minority communities: "Police cooperation with immigration enforcement reduces the likelihood that victims and witnesses of crimes will come forward."

It continues: "Police officers should have no direct link to the immigration database, first and foremost because it undermines the objective of policing to serve all residents. Second, mistakes have consistently been found in immigration information, putting the police at risk of legal challenge.

"There is also an impending danger of this technology being used against protesters, demonstrators and other marginalised groups such as sex workers, lower income, Roma and traveller communities who are particularly vulnerable to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill currently being tried as law in 2021.

"Systematic racial bias was evident in every police force that provided race data. The roll-out of mobile fingerprint scanners has taken place very quickly with no public consultation or equality impact analysis."

The RJN is now calling for the use of mobile fingerprint scanners to "immediately cease", until "equality impact assessments have been completed with rigour".

"Rigorous and comprehensive consultations with the public should be undertaken to ascertain whether they agree with the deployment of this technology and in what circumstances they consent to its use.

"Reports, such as the one carried out by RJN and Yorkshire Resists [earlier this year], show that 96 per cent of the public oppose the use of this technology. Consultations should be independent and led by community advocates and grassroots organisations.

"Police forces must implement recommendations from the MacPherson report to address institutional racism within it, as well as the suggestions made in Liberty and Southall Black Sisters’ police super complaint."

The RJN also adds: "The Home Office must apply the recommendations made by the Windrush Lessons Learned Review", while there should also be an end to "the Hostile Environment policies which disproportionately affect black and brown migrant communities".