{"id":263,"global_id":"economics.stir.ac.uk?id=263","global_id_lineage":["economics.stir.ac.uk?id=263"],"author":"9","status":"publish","date":"2025-03-05 13:47:32","date_utc":"2025-03-05 13:47:32","modified":"2025-11-30 15:38:56","modified_utc":"2025-11-30 15:38:56","url":"https:\/\/economics.stir.ac.uk\/?tribe_events=research-seminar-michael-watts-university-of-stirling","rest_url":"https:\/\/economics.stir.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/tribe\/events\/v1\/events\/263","title":"Research Seminar – Michael Watts (University of Stirling)","description":"
{In-Person Event Only}<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
Title:\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n
Watching the Watchmen: Does Metropolitan Police stop & search data show evidence of bias?<\/div>\n
Abstract:\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n
Since 2016, the Metropolitan Police has recorded the time, location, and various characteristics of every stop and search conducted by its officers, including the ethnicity, gender, and age range of the individual searched. This allows a range of statistical tests to be used to assess whether disparities in search rates can be explained by differences in observed behaviour across sub-groups (i.e. statistical discrimination), or whether they reflect bias. I apply a Bayesian hierarchical model that treats both the signal distribution and the decision threshold as latent variables, allowing both hit rate and threshold tests to be conducted using the posterior distributions. The results show no evidence of racial bias in recent years, though teenagers appear to be subjected to stricter scrutiny than older Londoners.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>","excerpt":"","slug":"research-seminar-michael-watts-university-of-stirling","image":false,"all_day":false,"start_date":"2025-03-27 12:30:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"03","day":"27","hour":"12","minutes":"30","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2025-03-27 14:00:00","end_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"03","day":"27","hour":"14","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_start_date":"2025-03-27 12:30:00","utc_start_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"03","day":"27","hour":"12","minutes":"30","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":"2025-03-27 14:00:00","utc_end_date_details":{"year":"2025","month":"03","day":"27","hour":"14","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"timezone":"Europe\/London","timezone_abbr":"GMT","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"$","currency_code":"USD","currency_position":"prefix","values":[]},"website":"","show_map":false,"show_map_link":false,"hide_from_listings":false,"sticky":false,"featured":false,"categories":[{"name":"Research Workshop","slug":"research-workshop","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":6,"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","description":"","parent":0,"count":20,"filter":"raw","id":6,"urls":{"self":"https:\/\/economics.stir.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories\/6","collection":"https:\/\/economics.stir.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/tribe\/events\/v1\/categories"}}],"tags":[],"venue":{"id":197,"author":"9","status":"publish","date":"2024-05-17 07:37:29","date_utc":"2024-05-17 06:37:29","modified":"2024-05-17 07:37:29","modified_utc":"2024-05-17 06:37:29","url":"https:\/\/economics.stir.ac.uk\/?tribe_venue=university-of-stirling","venue":"University of Stirling","slug":"university-of-stirling","json_ld":{"@type":"Place","name":"University of Stirling","description":"","url":"","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress"},"telephone":"","sameAs":""},"show_map":false,"show_map_link":false,"global_id":"economics.stir.ac.uk?id=197","global_id_lineage":["economics.stir.ac.uk?id=197"]},"organizer":[{"id":222,"author":"9","status":"publish","date":"2024-09-17 12:20:16","date_utc":"2024-09-17 11:20:16","modified":"2024-09-17 12:20:16","modified_utc":"2024-09-17 11:20:16","url":"https:\/\/economics.stir.ac.uk\/?tribe_organizer=carl-singleton","organizer":"Carl Singleton","slug":"carl-singleton","email":"carl.singleton@stir.ac.uk","json_ld":{"@type":"Person","name":"Carl Singleton","description":"","url":"","telephone":"","email":"carl.singleton@stir.ac.uk","sameAs":""},"global_id":"economics.stir.ac.uk?id=222","global_id_lineage":["economics.stir.ac.uk?id=222"]}],"custom_fields":[],"json_ld":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Event","name":"Research Seminar – Michael Watts (University of Stirling)","description":"<p>{In-Person Event Only} Title:\u00a0 Watching the Watchmen: Does Metropolitan Police stop & search data show evidence of bias? Abstract:\u00a0 Since 2016, the Metropolitan Police has recorded the time, location, and<\/p>\\n<p><a class="read-more" href="https:\/\/economics.stir.ac.uk\/?tribe_events=research-seminar-michael-watts-university-of-stirling" aria-label="Research Seminar - Michael Watts (University of Stirling) Read full post">Read full post<\/a><\/p>\\n","url":"https:\/\/economics.stir.ac.uk\/?tribe_events=research-seminar-michael-watts-university-of-stirling","eventAttendanceMode":"https:\/\/schema.org\/OfflineEventAttendanceMode","eventStatus":"https:\/\/schema.org\/EventScheduled","startDate":"2025-03-27T12:30:00+00:00","endDate":"2025-03-27T14:00:00+00:00","location":{"@type":"Place","name":"University of Stirling","description":"","url":"","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress"},"telephone":"","sameAs":""},"organizer":{"@type":"Person","name":"Carl Singleton","description":"","url":"","telephone":"","email":"carl.singleton@stir.ac.uk","sameAs":""},"performer":"Organization"}}