A new data map has revealed where police stop and searches happened in Watford and what the outcomes were.

Police.uk has published stop and search data for Hertfordshire in July 2022, including where the stops took place, who was stopped, why, and what happened.

In Hertfordshire, arrests were made after 12.21 per cent of stops, with no further action taken in 76.48 per cent of cases. The rest resulted in other "positive action".

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Data also appears to show black people are disproportionately likely to be searched. Police defined the ethnicity of the person stopped as black 12.5 per cent of the time while the 2021 census showed they made up just 2.8 per cent of the population.

Police can use ‘stop and search’ powers if they have ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe someone is carrying illegal drugs, a weapon, stolen property or something that could be used to commit a crime.

In Hertfordshire, controlled drugs were the object of 57.8 per cent of searches, and offensive weapons 18.13 per cent.

Articles for use in theft were the object of 18.13 per cent of searches, with stolen goods making up 3 per cent, psychoactive substances 1 per cent and all others below one per cent.

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