Research QuestionDo police supervisors reach different conclusions about the legality of a decision to stop and search in survey vignettes using similar facts with the ethnicity of subjects described as either black or white?DataWe utilize a vignette survey design, presenting 15 real-world stop and search examples from within the South Basic Command Unit policing area to 118 frontline uniformed supervisors (Sergeants and Inspectors) in the Metropolitan Police Service of London.MethodsWe introduce a randomised characteristic assignment of the ethnicity of the subject featured in the vignette to compare officer decision-making when the suspect is black or white. Using both Likert scale and free-text responses, a combination of descriptive statistics, inferential methods, and text mining is applied to the survey data.FindingsWe found no substantive difference in the justification of stop and search powers by officers between white suspects and black suspects. We did find substantial variability in supervisor assessments of whether vignettes provided sufficient legal grounds for conducting a stop and search.ConclusionsWithin the limits of the methodology, we conclude that there is no racial disparity in perceptions of legal thresholds for conducting searches across a range of circumstances. We must also conclude that there is a substantial range of opinion regarding different specific circumstances that are understood to provide a threshold of sufficient evidence to search.