Week Sixteen - Race, Ethnicity and the Police Flashcards
Stop and Search…
Vagrancy Act, 1824 – ‘loitering with intent’, suspicion
April 1981 – Operation Swamp, Brixton disturbances
“Inevitable”, “pressure building” (Sir Herman Ouseley)
Scarman Report: Racial disadvantage a fact of British life
PACE, 1984 – ‘reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing’
2009: 1,140,000 searches (15% with black people; 7 times as likely [per capita] to be stopped, Asians twice as likely)
2011/12: person 10+, who self-identified as belonging to black ethnic group was six times more likely than a white person to be stopped and searched under s1, PACE (Race and the CJS, MoJ)
Black and Asian people more frequently stopped, more often repeatedly stopped & more often intrusive searches.
Much less likely to feel the police acted fairly and politely.
Suspicionless Searches…
S.60 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, 1994 – stop and search without suspicion when serious violence is anticipated
8,000 (late 1990s) to >150k (2008/09, MoJ)
Use against black people increased 600%
Every 1,000 ppl searched, 42 are black vs. 1.6 white (27x more frequently stopped and searched, Asian 6x more likely)
S.44 Terrorism Act, 2000
Sharp increase in use of powers, esp after 7/7/2005, esp. vs Muslims (Parmar, 2011)
ECHR ruled s.44 unlawful (2010) – used arbitrarily and lacked safeguards
The Secret Policeman…
Why?
Crude links between different ethnicities and crimes by police?
Stereotyping and racial profiling
Less overt racism? Gone ‘underground’?
Under-representation of officers from minority ethnic backgrounds
Despite targets following Lawrence Inquiry
Black police associations as ‘new social movements’ (Holdaway, 2009)
“Cultural competence” (Bowling et al, 2004)
Ethnicity and the Police…
Mark Duggan killing – inquest finds it lawful, BUT…
Stafford Scott (Rights and Race Advocacy Officer, C4 News) - This is a good PR exercise but it’s not our reality Officers told lies. Perverse verdict
Apologise for event and treatment in immediate aftermath
David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, The Guardian, 8 January:
“Further clarification of the events surrounding Mark Duggan’s shooting is essential to enable the relationship between the community and the police to move forward. Public trust in the police has been shown to be fragile, and it will take time to rebuild following another setback.”
Response to Duggan Inquest…
Lee Jasper: the community was “confused and angry” after yesterday’s verdict at the Royal Courts of Justice.
“…open season on black men and an officer only has to justify shooting an individual by saying that he had an honest belief that that person had a gun.”
“…unless the police and the Mayor of London begin to credibly engage again with the black community and address the issue of institutionalized racism then the likelihood is that we may well see a recurrence of those disturbances.” The Telegraph, 9 January, 2014
Stephen Lawrence Enquiry 10 Years On…
Police and Racism, Equality and Human Rights Commission (2009)
Employment, training, retention, and promotion
Proportion of ethnic minority officers rose from 2% in 1999 to 3.9% (5,511 officers) in April 2007. However, the target of 7% will almost certainly not be met.
Stop and search
Disproportionate impact of stop and search on black people has shown no long term drop in the past 15 years.
Race hate crimes
Majority of racist incidents are not reported to the police. Recorded racist incidents in England and Wales rose from nearly 14,000 in 1997/8 to 61,262 in 2006/7 (See also Slide 8)
Lack of agreement: university degree as minimum entry requirement for the police.
