The search records we obtained are missing ethnic appearance records in between 38-45% of cases. The search records we have obtained are for searches recorded on L19C field contact forms. Our data does not report data from designated area searches. Victoria Police collect ethnic appearance when they search people and record those searches on L19C field contact forms but not when a vehicle is searched on its own. By removing all the vehicle only search records, the number of missing records is reduced to under 20%. The percentage of missing ethic appearance records have remained relatively consistent across the five years of data. In 2019, Victoria Police made collection of ethnic appearance records mandatory in field contact records. L19C search forms are a type of field contact record. We would expect to see improvements in the collection of ethnic appearance from then on. Data records from before and after 2019 (Figure 8) reveals that this policy has done little to increase the recording of ethnic appearance by Victoria Police members.

If Victoria Police was serious about implementing the Chief Commissioner’s promise to end systemic racism, and the ban on racial profiling, they would require ethnicity data collection for all searches, including vehicle searches.