The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) investigated what are known as Section 60 stops, where officers detain people without cause for suspicion of any particular crime.
The EHRC found that while overall use of stop and search had fallen, excessive use of the power against ethnic minorities had continued or increased.
According to the EHRC, Metropolitan Police officers stopped 68 out of every 1000 black people in their area between 2008 and 2009.
However, the highest rates of seemingly racial profiling were found outside of London. In the West Midlands, for example, an officer is 28 times more likely to stop and search a black person than a white person.
Overall, it was discovered that black people were 37 times more likely to be stopped under the Section 60 power than white people.
Asian people were 10 times more likely to be stopped.
It was also found that between 2008 and 2009, only 2.8 per cent of Section 60 searches resulted in an arrest, falling to 2.4 per cent between 2010 and 2011.
An EHRC spokesman told the Guardian newspaper: “Black youths are still being disproportionally targeted and without a clear explanation as to why, many in the community will see this as racial profiling.”
A spokesman for the Met said that Section 60 powers were “critical in our efforts to tackle knife, gun and gang crimes”.
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