IC codes refer to a police officer's visual assessment of the ethnicity of a person, and are used in the quick transmission of basic visual information, such as over radio.[4] They differ from self-defined ethnicity (SDE, or "18+1") codes, which refer to how a person describes their own ethnicity.[4] When recording a person's details (such as in the case of a stop and search or arrest), police are required to ask for and use SDE categories where possible, even if the category chosen does not match the officer's own assessment.[4]
^"Criminal Justice Act 1991: Section 95", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1991 c. 53 (s. 95), retrieved 17 January 2025, The Secretary of State shall in each year publish such information as he considers expedient for the purpose of [...] facilitating the performance by such persons of their duty to avoid discriminating against any persons on the ground of race or sex or any other improper ground.