Metropolitan police officers on a stop and search operation in south London. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA
If the levels of police stop and search activities against black and south Asian Britons are as disproportionate as Vikram Dodd's report suggests in today's Guardian much hard work remains to be done. But there's a silver lining all the same.
Today's alarm is sounded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which is threatening to denounce as "racist" those police forces that persist in excessive stop and search against ethnic minority citizens. Its report is due out next month.
The EHRC's research suggests that the Metropolitan police is still the prime offender despite robust efforts in recent years to recruit ethnic minority officers. It's an important ingredient in improving the performance of any large institution that should reflect the community it serves.
The Met was deemed to be responsible for 120,000 "excessive" stops, a power used up to five times as often as in comparable urban police forces. The Met carries out 71 stops per 1,000 people, whereas the West Midlands force covering multi-ethnic Birmingham carries out just 13.
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How are we doing in Hexham?
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