Racism in Policing – institutional racism versus the rotten apple theory
The allegations of police officer racism are nothing new. To challenge that racism, there has been a consistent low level of tolerance of racial abuse within the UK police service. | "Sir Paul Stephenson’s 2009 statement demonstrated his lack of understanding of
the problem. |
But that has not stopped racist conduct at an individual (and possibly collective) level. Moves by successive Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police – for instance - to ‘gently’ eradicate racism in the police service just seem to have driven it underground.
For those on the inside, Sir Paul Stephenson’s 2009 statement that the MPS was not institutionally racist, and that his force had made so much progress the label was no longer useful, demonstrated his lack of understanding of the problem. Stevenson was convinced that too much time was being spent on an old tiresome issue and that this was preventing the police from doing their real work. Did he think that by appointing a Director of Diversity or by establishing a policy of equality in the recruitment of police officers would stop police officers using racist stereotypes to deal with day to day situations on the ground?
Such an approach is far from harmless. Sir Paul chose to diminish the scope of the Lawrence Inquiry on its 10th anniversary by essentially saying that the boss no longer felt the core recommendations of the inquiry, for tackling police racism, were valid. Thus he told the world that his service would no longer cooperate and gave a signal to his officers that this behaviour was no longer a front-line priority.
Over the years there have been some valiant local efforts to ensure that officers working in ‘sensitive’ geographic locations have been given some form of ‘awareness training’. But such training has not been consistent and definitely has not been a continuing feature of professional development. Rather, at best, its been a one off linked to the hope that inbred prejudice and institutionalise stereotyping can be simply plucked out of policing practice. more>
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