Black e-scooter riders disproportionately targeted by London police

Disproportionate policing

Official data taken from a Met Police transparency report showed that Black people accounted for 30% of all traffic offence reports issued between January and May of 2021, despite making up just 13% of the capital’s population.

On the other hand, white people – which make up 60% of the population – were responsible for 50% of e-scooter tickets. In context, the rate of stoppages for Black riders was far higher.

Before private e-scooter use was declared illegal in public, Met Police explained that guidance is to stop and engage with all drivers to ‘explain guidance, enforce traffic legislation, and seize scooters that are being used illegally.’

Here are some of the e scooters that have been seized so far this year. They are illegal to use anywhere but private land #saferroads pic.twitter.com/vwYJ8tuvgJ

— Glos Police Specialist Ops (@GlosPolSpecOps) January 19, 2021

Instead, by admission of its own data, Black riders were far more likely to be stopped regardless of whether road rules – such as not wearing a helmet, running a red light, or using a cycle lane – had been broken.

Overall, eight in 10 Black offenders were punished on the spot compared to 67% white. Once actually hit with a Traffic Offence Report, figures showed that Black riders were twice as likely as white people to face prosecution.

With the most commonly ticketed group aged between 18-29, there is concern from equality NGOs that police may be perpetuating the harmful stereotype that young Black men ‘are up to no good.’

Response to the findings

Katrina Ffrench, a director at Unjust – an NGO focused on equitable policing and public safety – stated that she found the statistics to be ‘worrying, but not surprising.’

Pointing to similar ethnic disparities with stop and search penalty notices throughout the pandemic, she suggested there is a continued ‘overrepresentation of Black people in engagements with police.’

‘It’s about them being seen as suspicious,’ she says.

‘E-scooter safety is not a Black issue, but what is clear is that other members of society aren’t on the sharp end of the policing of e-scooters.’

‘I’m not saying Black people should not be stopped if they are doing something wrong, I’m just asking for parity. If you are stopping lots of Black people you should be stopping lots of other people as well.’

Despite the promising rhetoric that followed the height of the BLM movement in 2020, we’ve seen regular reports of racial gaps widening in some facets of society.

Still disproportionately affected in the search for work and mortgage applications in the UK, this latest report is further proof that government has yet to really make movements towards real equality.

In wake of these reports, it’ll be interesting to see what the numbers look like in the next transparency breakdown. The pressure is now on to make genuine progress.