6. Memorandum submitted by
Ionann Management Consultants Limited
INTRODUCTION
1. Ionann is a management consultancy which
specialises in equality, diversity and human rights. Established
in 1998, Ionann won a national contract with the Home Office Police
Leadership and Powers Unit to supply community and race relations
training for police forces and to work with Centrex (then National
Police Training) to support the development of its work on race
and community relations. The contract ended in April 2004. By
then we had provided race and community relations training and
support to 16 police services under the Home Office contract.
We have also worked with States of Jersey Police and other police
services outside the Home Office contract. We have recently completed
a human rights audit for An Garda Síochána (Republic
of Ireland police service). We have provided diversity training
for three police authorities. We have worked with both the MPS
and the MPA on diversity impact assessment procedures, including
facilitation of community consultation events to ensure community
engagement with the process.
2. As an organisation we therefore have
substantial practical experience of policing, race and community
relations and wider diversity issues. On an individual level,
our President Dianna Yach was a member of the Cassels Inquiry
into police reform in 1996; she is a member of the MPS Independent
Advisory Group and the Camden Police Community Consultative Group.
Our Head of Research Anne Dunn has conducted research on stop
and search powers in Tottenham and Sussex. She was a member of
a critical incident independent advisory group and as a Visiting
Lecturer at Westminster University has been the module leader
for Police Studies.
3. The main focus of our submission is the
extent to which equality, diversity and human rights is embedded
in the police reform agenda and in the delivery of police services
to local communities more generally. This submission has been
prepared specifically for the Committee.
BACKGROUND
4. The need to promote trust and confidence
in policing among minority ethnic communities was strongly acknowledged
in the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report in 1999.[1]
As the then Home Secretary Jack Straw said, this report was to
"serve as a watershed in our attitudes to racism. I want
it to act as a catalyst to permanent and irrevocable change."
The Lawrence report re-stated long-standing concerns in minority
ethnic communities which had felt "over-policed and under-protected"
for many years. The racist murder of Stephen Lawrence was the
latest in a series of racist attacks. According to Ben Bowling,[2]
since the murder in 1959 of Kelso Cochrane there have been more
than 90 murders where racism was known or believed to have been
a factor.
5. The Lawrence report also noted the impact
of police stop and search powers on black communities:
"If there was one area of complaint which
was universal, it was the issue of `stop and search'. Nobody in
the minority ethnic communities believes that the complex arguments
which are sometimes used to explain the figures as to stop and
search are valid . . . their experience goes beyond the formal
stop and search figures . . . (to) their experience of being stopped
under traffic legislation, drugs legislation and so called `voluntary
stops'. . . we are clear that the perception and experience of
the minority communities that discrimination is a major element
in the stop and search problem is correct."
The most recent stop and search statistics show
continuing over-representation of black and Asian people among
those stopped and searched:[3]
a search rate per 1,000 people which is six times higher for black
people than white people and twice higher for Asian people than
white people, for example.
6. The screening in October 2003 of the
BBC programme "The Secret Policeman", and the subsequent
publication of an interim report of a CRE inquiry[4]
show that despite the many clear achievements made since the Lawrence
Report, there is still serious cause for concern about race issues
in particular in the police service. The CRE report found, for
example, that only one police force had produced a satisfactory
Race Equality Scheme as required under the Race Relations (Amendment)
Act 2000.
OUR PRESENT
CONCERNS
7. Ten years after the murder of Stephen
Lawrence, Doreen Lawrence said
"Senior officers' attitudes seem to have
changed but those on the ground still have a lot to learn. The
awareness is there but the lesson has not been completed."[5]
In our experience of race and diversity training,
we, along with other contractors, found high levels of denial
among front line officers of the existence of "institutional
racism", much resistance to the message of race and diversity
training, and little support from middle or senior management
after the training. Training on its own was expected to be the
sole agent of a cultural change within the force, with no consideration
given to other steps which were needed to reinforce the training.
There was a lack of real leadership and a high level strategic
approach to promoting good race and community relations from the
top to the bottom of the service.
8. There has been a sense in the last two
to three years that race has "slipped off the agenda",
at a time when the Home Office was increasingly focused on quantitative
performance measurement and numeric targets for crime reduction.
There has been little or no attempt to change the overall ethos
and culture of policing into one of positive promotion of equality
and customer service instead of crime fighting (at lower ranks)
and target meeting (at higher ranks).
THE REFORM
AGENDA
9. To what extent will the National Policing
Plan 2004-07, and other aspects of the police reform agenda, meet
these concerns? In general we broadly welcome the first of the
key priorities in the Plan:
"Providing a citizen focused service to
the public, especially victims and witnesses, which responds to
the needs of individuals and communities and inspires confidence
in the police particularly amongst minority ethnic communities."
We also welcome the establishment of a central
advisory service and the future new Police Leadership Centre (para
2.13), as we know that strong leadership is crucial. The development
of a wider assessment framework under PPAF (para 3.5) and the
new Statutory Performance Indicators[6]
are also welcomed, particularly the intention to analyse all outcome
measures across PPAF by ethnicity.[7]
It will be essential to involve communities in the design, measurement
and analysis of performance measurement systems, so that they
are appropriate to community needs and expectations. What independent
oversight of performance measurement is to be involved?
10. It will be essential to give clear guidance
at BCU level as to what these objectives actually mean for day-to-day
policing, to provide training which can help to bring about a
shift of the culture towards a citizen focus and to help local
areas to make better use of PPAF and other measures to monitor
police and public contacts in a routine and systematic way.
11. For example, how will SPI 3(c) (percentage
of PACE stop/searches which lead to arrest by ethnicity) be linked
to local policing, local decision making, local management, and
community engagement? How will front line officers be trained
to embed citizen focused policing in their day-to-day decision-making?
How will their decision-making be monitored and managed at local
level? And how will local minority ethnic community members have
access to the performance measurements? The relationship between
national standards, local decision making and community involvement
is not yet clearly spelt out for all concerned.
12. In terms of accountability, we are concerned
that the trend over recent years has been increased centralisation
of policing functions, with increased central Home Office control
via national objectives and new powers under the Police Act 2002
(as seen in the recent case of the Chief Constable of Humberside).
There is also discussion at ACPO level of moving towards a smaller
number of large regional forces. While more consistency in the
quality of policing across forces is desirable, these trends militate
against local community engagement. It will be important to ensure
local involvement in establishing local police plans, and strong
local mechanisms for accountability. The transition to localism
in policing (para 3.1) is positive, as are proposals for neighbourhood
panels, community advocates and local policing boards.[8]
However, for these new mechanisms to work so that all communities
are included, it will be essential to:
— Support and enhance the capacity
of local minority ethnic communities to participate in this way.
— Take a flexible and imaginative approach
to community engagement which is not based only in formal and
rigid structures.
— Monitor and review participation
to ensure it is genuinely inclusive.
— Draw on and disseminate existing
good practice among Police Authorities and Independent Advisory
Groups.
— Increase the numbers of independent
members on police authorities and extend magistrate membership
to cover representatives of Criminal Justice Boards and Crime
and Disorder partnerships as well.
13. Having worked closely with Centrex over
several years, we feel its role and function needs a comprehensive
review. We have found it to lack clear strategic direction in
relation to race and diversity issues. There has been a lack of
continuity of staff involved in this area, with a rapid turnover
of people seconded from their forces for short periods of time.
For Centrex to fulfil its aspiration to be a centre of excellence
in police training, a radical overhaul is required. This should
include a review of the quality of all academic and teaching staff
as well as the way in which training is provided along with active
exploration of partnership working with existing educational institutions
and community based training organisations.
14. It is not easy for outside agencies
working with the police to disentangle the roles of Centrex, the
National Centre for Policing Excellence, PSSO, PLLP, PSU and the
other Home Office units which govern policing. In fact this can
be positively obscure! A clearer structure and explanation of
the functions of each would promote greater community engagement
with citizen focused policing.
CONCLUSION: KEY
ISSUES
15. While we welcome many elements of the
police reform agenda, we believe more is needed to deliver the
kind of 21st century policing we would like to see.
16. The first is to see a new priority given
to tackling the race discrimination which is still all too clearly
evident, internally as shown by recruitment and retention figures
for minority ethnic officers, and externally as shown by continuing
disproportionate use of all search powers on minority ethnic suspects.
The CRE report and the "Secret Policeman" programme
also indicate that nearly 25 years after the Scarman Report, racism
is still a serious problem for the police service.
17. We would like to see a stronger reference
to promoting equality and diversity and eliminating discrimination
reflected throughout the National Police Plan and PPAF.
18. There is no reference in the Plan or
other consultation documents to policing and human rights. The
Council of Europe has developed guidance on policing in a democratic
society which covers human rights observance in all aspects of
police work. We would like to see reference to human rights embedded
in the Plan.
29 July 2004
1 Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, HMSO CM4262, 1999. Back
2
Bowling, B, Violent Racism, OUP 1998. Back
3
Race and the Criminal Justice system: overview 2002-03; Institute
for Criminal Policy Research; Kings College London June 2004. Back
4
Formal Investigation of the Police Service in England and Wales,
Interim Report, CRE June 2004. Back
5
Guardian 19/04/03. Back
6
Statutory Instrument 2004 No 644. Back
7
Annex C, 11 (i). Back
8
Consultative document, Building Safer Communities together, Home
Office November 2003. Back
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