Police
The police services of the UK began to classify arrests in racial groups in 1975, but later replaced the race code with an Identity Code (IC) system.
- IC1 White person
- IC2 Mediterranean person
- IC3 African/Caribbean person
- IC4 Indian, Nepalese, Pakistani, Maldivian, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, or any other (South) Asian person
- IC5 Chinese, Japanese, or South-East Asian person
- IC6 Arabic, Egyptian or Maghreb person
- IC0 Origin unknown
This classification is still referred to on some police websites and police chase TV shows, e.g. "Driver is IC1 male, passenger is IC3 male".
From 1 April 2003, police forces were required to use the new system described above. Police forces and civil and emergency services, the NHS and local authorities in England and Wales may refer to this as the "16+1" system, named for the 16 classifications of ethnicity plus one category for "not stated". The IC classification is still used for descriptions of suspects by police officers amongst themselves, but does risk incorrectly identifying a victim a witness or a suspect compared to that person's own description of their ethnicity. When a person is stopped by a police officer exercising statutory powers and asked to provide information under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, they are asked to select one of the five main categories representing broad ethnic groups and then a more specific cultural background from within this group. Officers must record the respondent's answer, not their own opinion.
Read more about this topic: Classification Of Ethnicity In The United Kingdom
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