IC codes are codes used by the British police in radio communications to describe the apparent ethnicity of a suspect. The codes are based on a police officer's perceived view of an individual's ethnicity based on a visual assessment, as opposed to that individual's self-definition.
In most circumstances where an individual's ethnicity is recorded after spoken contact with police (such as a "Stop and Search" or arrest), police are required to use a different set of codes (self-defined ethnicity codes).
The IC codes are:
- IC1 – White person, northern European type
- IC2 – Mediterranean European/Hispanic
- IC3 – African/Afro-Caribbean person
- IC4 – Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, Maldivian, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, or any other (South) Asian person
- IC5 – Chinese, Japanese, or South-East Asian person
- IC6 – Arab person
- IC0, IC7 or IC9 – Origin unknown
"IC" itself stands for "Identity Code", so "IC code" is a redundant acronym though still commonly used. The codes are also known as PNC or Phoenix Codes, or the 6+1 system. Street wardens and City Guardians (Westminster City Council), Police community support officers and security guards also use IC Codes on a regular basis.
Famous quotes containing the word codes:
“We must trust infinitely to the beneficent necessity which shines through all laws. Human nature expresses itself in them as characteristically as in statues, or songs, or railroads, and an abstract of the codes of nations would be an abstract of the common conscience.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)