ABSTRACT
This paper provides an overview of the Hungarian legal norms regulating police identification (ID) checks, briefly elaborating on the legally permitted aims of the measure and on whether the relevant legal provisions restrict officers’ decisions on whom to stop for this purpose. The paper also describes the methodology of two major research projects on ‘ethnic profiling’ of Roma from the past five years and presents their findings. In order to assess the effectiveness of the police practice and the patterns of ethnic profiling in the particular field, the paper provides an analysis of data based on more than 20,000 ID check forms. The research results show clear ethnic disproportionality and extremely low effectiveness in police ID check practice. The paper also offers some recommendations for the improvement of the present legal framework concerning ID checks.
