Ethnic minorities are nearly four times as likely to be stopped and searched by police as white people in North Yorkshire, new figures reveal.

Race campaigners today criticised what they called the disproportionate use of police powers against non-whites, saying it reduced confidence in the force among ethnic communities.

The figures are contained in a police report of performance indicators which goes before North Yorkshire Police Authority next week.

The report also shows that the force has beaten its targets for the detection of robberies and domestic burglaries across the area.

But it shows that in 2000-2001, for every 1,000 people of ethnic minority background in the county, 33.4 were stop-searched.

For every 1,000 white people in the county, only 8.8 were stopped and searched.

The number of white people per 1,000 stopped and searched had fallen since the previous year, while the number of ethnic minorities per 1,000 had risen.

The most recent available figures, compiled in 1996, show that there are 532,850 white people and 3,364 people from ethnic minority backgrounds in North Yorkshire.

A spokeswoman for the Commission For Racial Equality (CRE) said the figures for the county were similar to those for forces across the country.

"We have concerns about the disproportionate use of stop-and-search against people from ethnic minorities," she said. "We are not against stop-and-search in principle, but we want it to be used in a non-discriminatory way, and in a way that won't reduce the confidence of ethnic minorities in the police force."

Stop-and-search is conducted when officers have a reasonable suspicion that a person is carrying a weapon or stolen property.

The report showed that the percentage of robberies and domestic burglaries detected by the force rose slightly.

There was a three per cent improvement in the number of robberies detected by officers, and a one-and-a-half per cent increase in the number of breaks-ins detected.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said he did not think the statistics on stop-and-search showed "anything deeply meaningful".

He said: "The bottom line is people are stopped and searched for the simple and excellent reason that we have a good reason for doing so. We are not insensitive to the feelings of ethnic minorities and all officers are trained in awareness of such issues."

North Yorkshire Police set up the Diversity Incorporating Safer Communities (Disc) initiative last year to tackle issues concerning the way the police deal with minority groups both internally and externally.

The report, Best Value: Performance Indicators 2000-2001, shows the force's performance in a number of issues, including answering 999 calls, the number of road accidents and responding to incidents in rural areas.

In many categories, the force is set targets to reach.

Updated: 10:37 Friday, January 12, 2001