A BRADFORD organisation has released a new report suggesting that people of colour are being disproportionately ‘stopped and scanned’ by police.

The Racial Justice Network, which has offices in both Bradford and Leeds, released the report on the use of mobile fingerprinting by police forces across the UK.

It obtained the data through Freedom of Information requests from April 2020 to December 2021.

Mobile fingerprinting allows police to scan a person’s fingerprint against the criminal record database and the Home Office Immigration and Asylum Biometric Service database.

The report claims that data provided by eight police forces across the country – which included West Yorkshire Police – suggests that, in the UK, Black people are four times more likely to be ‘stopped and scanned’ than white people.

Asian people as twice as likely to be ‘stopped and scanned’ than white people, it added.  

Carys, of the Racial Justice Network, commented: “Technology which relies heavily on an officer’s discretion, coupled with an institution that targets low-level infractions within over-policed and marginalised communities, is a recipe for disaster.

“The inevitable racial profiling is reflected in the data.

“If nothing is done, technologies like this will continue to creep up without consultation, and ethical reviews will continue to be carried out behind closed doors.”

The full report can be found here.