New Notting Hill stop and search data: Black Londoners still bearing brunt of excessive policing

The number of Black Londoners recorded as stopped and searched at Notting Hill Carnival in 2023 is nearly five times as many as the number of white Londoners, Caroline Russell AM has uncovered today. [1]

The data shows a total of 283 Black Londoners and 60 white Londoners recorded as stopped and searched at the event. 

But a further 396 people, nearly half (48.8 per cent), of the total 812 people stopped and searched by the Met police at Notting Hill Carnival 2023 had their ethnicity listed as “unknown”.

In contrast the main Met database covering stop and search across London has just 1.3 per cent of stop and searches recorded with a “not stated” ethnicity category. [2]

Green Party London Assembly Member Caroline Russell said: 

“The recorded ethnicity data shows yet another example of Black Londoners bearing the brunt of excessive policing, with a nearly five-fold difference that could look even worse if the data had been properly recorded.,

 “The Mayor has told me that the vast majority of stop and searches that took place at Carnival resulted in no further action which should make us even more concerned that this tactic is based on profiling rather than results. [3]

“For the Met not to know the ethnicity of nearly half the people they are stopping and searching at Notting Hill Carnival is sloppy data recording, sloppy policing, and indicative of a lack of care in the use of this traumatic police tactic and the impact this may have on Black Londoners. This undermines efforts to rebuild trust and confidence in the Met”.

Caroline Russell had previously uncovered how the number of people stopped and searched at Notting Hill Carnival in 2023 was more than twice as many as in 2022. [3]