Driving in London while Black
From
The Times Online comes this story of political correctness gone overboard:
Cameras set racial poser on car crime
Britain's most senior policeman Sir Ian Blair is facing a race relations dilemma after the release of figures that reveal almost half the number of people arrested in relation to car crime in London are black.
Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has signed off a report by his force’s traffic unit which shows that black people account for 46% of all arrests generated by new automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras.
The technology allows car registration plates to be scanned and automatically run through databases to determine whether a vehicle is stolen, uninsured or has not had its road tax paid.
Each numberplate is also checked with the police national computer, where vehicles suspected of links to crimes such as robberies are flagged up.
The Met has deployed six mobile ANPR camera units in the capital, primarily in areas with high levels of street crime. When a suspect vehicle is identified, police officers are sent to intercept the driver.
Although ANPR technology is impartial, the disproportionate number of blacks being arrested has prompted the Met to investigate.
Emphasis mine -- let's just cut to the quick and suggest that maybe blacks are committing a disproportionate number of crimes.
The cameras are not profiling, the data is about as pure as it can be and because it doesn't look good for the blacks, they are playing the race card.
Some numbers:
It reveals that between April 2005 and January this year the units generated 2,023 arrests. Of these 923 were black suspects, while 738 (36%) came from white backgrounds. Asians accounted for just over 9% of arrests.
And what are the numbers on the overall population:
However, statistics from the 2001 census show that the highest black population in any borough is no greater than about 25%. The proportion of black people across the capital as a whole is about 11%.
There is a problem and it is not the cameras...
Posted by DaveH at May 16, 2006 8:37 PM