2019 - Police Data

Cost and method of obtaining data

This data was obtained on 27 August 2021 through an FOI application by Tamar Hopkins from Victoria Police following 21 months of litigation in VCAT. Thank you to the probono assistance of Kathleen Foley, Sophie Ellis, Charandev Singh and Viraaj Akuthota and Phi Finney McDonald. Victoria Police charged $500.00 for the release of the data and it included 2018 data.

Information about the data

In 2019, 41.5% of ethnic appearance data is missing. No vehicle search only data includes ethnic appearance data. Consequently this analysis excludes searches involving a vehicle search only. 17.6% of the searches where a person is searched are missing ethnic appearance records. Furthermore, Victoria Police uses 20 ethnic appearance categories including one that combines people of African and Middle Eastern appearance. Thanks to Gordana Popovic for assistance in analysing the data.