Comparing Police Stop and Search Records for University locations in England and Wales
I decided to pick four universities across England and Wales to show whether there are similarities and differences in the way the police act at each location when carrying out a stop and search. I developed a program with AI to process current police stop and search data. All the code was created by AI and the advice on how to implement it. It created a location map and a chart of the days in the month when the stop and search happened, a chart of the times when it happened and a chart of the ethnicity of the people stopped and searched. It had to convert the postcode location of the university to latitude and longitude to process the police data. I chose Oxford, Manchester, Cardiff and Northampton universities locations for stop and search data.
This gives an idea of the data created in a Google Sheet for the latest available data from July 2023.
The Oxford University Area Data — OX1 4BH
In a Google search for an Oxford University the postcode of OX1 4BH was given. This map was generated from the AI-created code from the university postcode converted to latitude and longitude.
The following chart showed a fairly well-balanced pattern of stops and searches in the Oxford University area by date in July 2023.
This chart shows that young white men were the largest number of people who were stopped and searched in this Oxford University area within this time frame:
This chart shows that between 1 am and 2 am the majority of stop and searches occured in this Oxford area in July 2023 and that no stop and searches happened between 7 am and 10 am. Students and others weren’t delayed in Oxford attending work, exams and lectures in July 2023.
Arrests made in the Oxford University Area
Only two arrests were made in the Oxford University Area out of thirty-six stops and searches in July 2023. One man was white with an offensive weapon and the other another ethnic group related to drugs.
Cardiff University Area Data— CF10 3AT
A Google search for Cardiff University gives the postcode CF10 3AT and this area map was generated by the AI software from the latitude and longitude.
The number of stops and searches in this area was limited. No women were stopped and searched. It seems the Cardiff police sensibly thought universities were not high-crime areas in July 2023.
This chart shows that for the Cardiff University area, 50% were ethnically black/African/Caribbean. Yet the data shows only two of those labeled as ‘other ethnic group’ were arrested and none of the young black men who may have been students. But this data is too limited to make judgments on it for July 2023.
This chart shows the majority of these stops and searches happened around this Cardiff University location at around 8 p.m. However there is not enough data for July 2023 to make any judgments on it.
Arrests made in the Cardiff University Area
There were two arrests made out of nine stop and searches in July 2023 by the Cardiff police but the lack of data means no conclusions can be drawn. It looks two men were arrested related to drugs.
Manchester University Area Data — M1 3BB
A Google search gave a choice of two postcodes for Manchester University so I picked the first M1 3BB. This map was generated from the university postcode converted to latitude and longitude by the AI software.
There was no obvious pattern of dates when stop and searches happened around the Manchester University area in July 2023 though perhaps a slow increase as the month progressed.
The ethnicity of most people stopped and searched within this Manchester University area was white and all those arrested were white and two who were arrested were female in July 2023.
This chart shows the majority of the Manchester area stop and searches were early evening and none late at night. This may have to do with police funding more than crime. The 4 a.m. story is interesting as they seem to be targeting women. What sort of women were walking around at 4 a.m. near a university in July 2023?
Arrests made in the Manchester University Area
There were six arrests made out of seventy-two stops and searches in the Manchester University area in July 2023 and two were young teenage females arrested at 4 a.m. in possession of stolen goods. They were unlikely to be students returning to the halls of residence. All the arrests were white men or women.
Northampton University Area Data — NN1 5PA
A Google search gave the postcode NN1 5PA for Northampton University. This map was generated from the university postcode converted to latitude and longitude by the AI software:
There were some cyclic increases in stop and search data in July 2023 which perhaps ties in to weekends. But Northampton University may be unique in that it has its own police station on site.
The ethnicity of people searched in the Northampton Univerity area was around 60% white/white other and 40 % non-white or other ethnic group in July 2023.
The time of stop and searches in this Northampton area was mainly 3 pm and 9 pm but there was a distribution of stop and searches at other times in July 2023.
Arrests made in the Northampton University Area
The following were the nine arrests made from sixty-eight stop and searches made in the Northampton area in July 2023. Eight were white men and one of mixed ethnicity. All were related to drugs.
Conclusions
There were no clear patterns of stop-and-search around these university properties in terms of dates and times in July 2023. There may have been an increase in some areas like Northampton on weekends and perhaps an increase as the month progressed like Manchester potentially trying to achieve arrest targets. Generally, females were not stopped, searched, or arrested unless they hung around Manchester University at 4 a.m. Looking at the data as a picture we might conclude more young white men were stopped and searched than those of an ethnic minority or other ethnicity and more white people get arrested. But disproportionately more non-white young men and students were targeted without justification. If young black men generally don’t commit crimes around university property why would you stop and search them there? Cardiff University shows that a university is not generally a high-crime area and those arrested around university property were generally white and concerned with drugs.
See how the app was built by AI and get the full code used:
I HAD TO COMPLAIN TO THE OPEN DATA GOVERNANCE BODY AS THE POLICE STOPPED MAKING THIS DATA OPEN YET CLAIM IT IS.
I have started to create a revised version using AI to fix the issues:
