Black people in Sussex are nine times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people.

Human rights organisation Liberty said stop and searches only worsen division in communities and called on the government to invest in "solutions to tackle the root cause of crime".

Sussex Police carried out 544 stop and searches on black people in the year to March – equivalent to 25.4 per 1,000 black people in the area based on recent census estimates.

This compares to a rate of 2.8 per 1,000 white people in Sussex, meaning black people were nine times as likely to be stopped and searched by police.

Akiko Hart, interim director at Liberty, said: "We all deserve to go about our lives without fear of being harassed or targeted, but these figures show that the police are still unfairly targeting black people with degrading and traumatic stop and searches."

Responding to the figures, Sussex Police said: "The use of stop and search powers are a valuable tool for police to help prevent and detect crime.

"Sussex Police regularly scrutinises stops.

"Officers who use stop and search powers must have reasonable grounds to do so and ensure they comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty to demonstrate to communities how the powers have been used fairly.

"We do this through an external scrutiny panel, made up of members of the community who review police stop and searches including looking at body-worn video, helping ensure better scrutiny.

"The force continues to review and study how officers use stop and search powers and the impact this has on Black communities and on young people."

Across forces in England and Wales, people who self-identified or who police identified as black were 5.5 times more likely to be subject to a stop-and-search last year – down from 6.2 in 2021-22.

These figures come as five Metropolitan Police officers have denied gross misconduct at a disciplinary hearing over the stop and search of athletes Bianca Williams and her partner Ricardo Dos Santos. The couple, who are black, were handcuffed after a stop and search in 2020.

Ms Williams, a four times 100 metre relay gold medallist, accused the police of having racially profiled them.

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A Home Office spokesman said: "Nobody should be stopped and searched because of their ethnicity, and it is encouraging to see racial disparities in stop and search use fall in the past year."

He also said the Home Secretary has given her full support to frontline officers to use their powers to "keep the streets safe and protect the public".

"Every knife taken off our streets is a potential life saved and since 2019 we have removed 120,000 knives and offensive weapons from our streets through stop and search, surrender initiatives and other targeted police action," he said.