Racial bias in police stops and searches: an economic analysis

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to provide an economic analysis of racial bias in police stops and searches. It develops a model of policing behaviour, which is used to define discrimination, clarify its nature and identify its sources. This paper identifies two sources of discrimination—bigotry and business necessity—and suggests how they might be identified in terms of the available data. Bigotry is always inefficient but discrimination based on business necessity makes for efficient policing. However, discrimination based on business necessity may be unacceptable on equity grounds and the paper explores the tension between efficient and equitable policing.