A REVIEW will look at why black people are disproportionately more likely to be stopped and searched by Dorset Police – compared to other groups.

A national expert has been called in to complete the work on behalf of the force and the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Martyn Underhill.

“Dorset is an outlier for all the wrong reasons. Statistically if you are black you are more likely to be stopped in Dorset than almost anywhere else in the UK,” said the PCC at Tuesday’s Police and Crime Panel meeting.

He said that an analysis of the statistics for the county was being carried out and would be followed by a visit by a professional, who was not named, but described as “a national lead on the subject.” Mr Underhill said additional training would be offered to the force based around the result of the findings.

“It could be a culture on stop and search in Dorset which is wrong…the review will try and understand why Dorset has such an issue with these statistics,” he said.