Police and policing

Lecture 7
the police, race and
ethnicity
Dr Layla Skinns
Reader, School of Law, University of Sheffield.
[email protected]



Aims of this lecture

! Examine the police’s relationship with Black, Asian and

Minority Ethnic citizens (BAME).
! Examine these relationships in light of the socio-political
context of colonialism and patterns of migration, as well
as deprivation.
! Examine key themes in police-BAME citizen relationships,
focusing in particular on:
! Police responses to racist victimisation, drawing on the case
of Stephen Lawrence to highlight this.
! Police use of stop and search.

7.1 Key concepts

Race, ethnicity and
intersectionality
! Race - contentious and contested term used to describe
phenotypical attributes used to denote difference.
! Ethnicity - arose in contradistinction to race to
emphasise shared cultural characteristics.
! Intersectionality “is the study of overlapping social
identities and related systems of oppression,
discrimination and domination. From an intersectional
perspective, aspects of a person’s identity for example
race, class, gender are understood to be enmeshed”
(Parmar, 2017: 36).

Prejudice, stereotyping and

discrimination
! Stereotyping involves attributing the
characteristics of one person to all members
of the group.
! Prejudice entails negative or biased
attitudes towards social groups and their
individual members.
! Discrimination entails treating someone
unfairly and has typically been used in the
context of race and ethnic relations.
! Racism is one form of discrimination

! Individual vs. institutional racism

 Institutional racism

Institutional racism is defined as "the

collective failure of an organisation to
provide an appropriate and
professional service to people because
of their colour, culture or ethnic origin.
It can be seen or detected in
processes, attitudes and behaviour,
which amount to discrimination
through unwitting prejudice,
ignorance, thoughtlessness, and racist
stereotyping which disadvantage
minority ethnic people" (Macpherson,
1999: 6.34: 28).
6

7.2 Police-BAME citizen
relations in context
Race and ethnicity in context

! ‘Race science’ - promulgated ideas about the inferiority

of ‘negros’ from the 15th century onwards but esp. in 19th
century.
! These racist ideas were used to justify slavery and
indentured labour + central to the rise of the British
Empire.
! Post-WWII - Migration from former colonies to the UK !
increasingly diverse population, but also increasing
racism in the police and in wider society.

In the 1950s and 1960s

“A conservative, inward-looking, largely inexperienced

post-war police service, whose priorities lay elsewhere than
in the field of community relations, was tasked with
policing the nation's transition to an ethnically and
culturally diverse society without the legislative support to
ensure its success. In such circumstances, it was perhaps
inevitable that the transition would be painful for those
most directly involved (Whitfield, 2007: 15)”
The police and race relations: Key
moments

! The ‘Sus’ laws in the 1970s – largely used against BAME

citizens.
! Mid-1970s sensationalist media reporting !
criminalization of BAME citizens, esp. the black
community.
! The 1981 Brixton riots and the Scarman Report. Riots
rooted in:
1. Harassment of the black community by the police, linked to
racial prejudice.
2. BAME experiences of deprivation and inequality.

The police and race relations: Key

moments

! The 1993 racially-motivated murder of Stephen

Lawrence and the Macpherson Report. Revealed:
! Incompetence and institutional racism of the Met.
! Under-protection of BAME citizens who experienced
racist victimisation.
! The 2011 riots in London and other urban centres.
! Ostensibly sparked by the death of Mark Duggan.
! An expression of (black) young people’s grievances,
incl. with the police.
! #BlackLivesMatter – Since 2012, it has revealed
the global scale of the problem.
! Since the death of George Floyd in May 2020,
there have been calls to defund the police esp. in
the US

The police and race relations:

common themes
! These key moments illustrate three salient points:
1. The disenfranchised and unequal position of some
BAME citizens - reinforced by the way they were
policed.
2. The lack of trust and confidence in the police to treat
BAME ! de-stabilised the legitimacy of the police
institution.
3. Since the 1970s, BAME citizens have felt ‘over-policed
and under-protected’.

BAME populations in 2011

! BAME citizens of the 21st century are descendants of

post-war settlers from Britain’s former colonial
territories in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
! The 2011 Census showed that the 56.2 million people in
the UK can be broken-down into the following ethnic
groups:
! White (86%);
! Asian/British Asian (7.5%);
! Black/African/Caribbean/Black British (3.3%);
! Mixed/multiple ethnic groups (2.2%)
! Other ethnic origin (1%).

 Criminal justice statistics per

1000 of the population in 2015
White Black Mixed Asian Chinese/ Black/
other White
Ratio

Police 15 65 28 23 14 4.3
searches

Arrests 19 56 38 20 18 3.0
Cautions 3 7 2 0.4
Prosecutions* 6 18 11 5 4 3.0

Convictions* 5 14 9 4 3 2.8
Prison 182 603 462 151 6 3.3
population**

* For indictable only offences tried at Magistrates’ court Source: Phillips and
** Per 100,000 of the population aged 15 years+ Bowling (2017: 196)

The representativeness of the police

! In 2020, BAME officers made up 7.3%

of the police workforce in E+W vs.
14% of the gen. population (Home
Office, 2020).
! Considerable variation between forces
(e.g. MPS, BTP, GMP and WMP are the
most diverse) (Hale, 2020)
! Less diversity higher up the ranks –8%
constables vs. 4% of senior officers
(Home Office, 2020).

Proportion of police
officers who are BAME,
by rank, as of 31
March 2020
Source: Home Office
(2020: 28, 29 and 32)

 The representativeness of the

police

Ethnic minorities as a percentage (%) of the total police officer workforce

(full-time equivalent), 2007 to 2018. Source: Hales (2020: 3)
7.3 Police responses to
racist victimization:
Under protection of BAME citizens by the
police?
Racist victimisation and
police responses to it
! Lengthy history of the police failing to protect
BAME people from racist victimisation e.g.
Bowling (1996).
! Difficulties include e.g. the police downplaying the
racial motive for a crime.
! Lengthy history of racist violence against
established migrant communities and, more
recently, new groups.
! Racist victimisation may go unreported, incl.
because of a lack of trust in the police.
! BAME victims are less likely to be satisfied with
their experiences of the police.

The murder of Stephen

Lawrence
! Stephen Lawrence died in Eltham in South London
on 22 April 1993.
! He was stabbed to death in an unprovoked racist “An ideal-typical
attack by a group of 5-6 white youths.
pure victim of
! Stephen Lawrence was an entirely innocent victim. impeccable
! Two suspects were arrested and charged in May and character” (Reiner,
June 1993, but the case was dropped by the CPS in 2010: 256)
July 1993 due to insufficient evidence.
! A subsequent private prosecution brought by the
Lawrence family in April 1994 also failed.
! In 2012, two of the attackers – Gary Dobson and
David Norris – were convicted of his murder and
sentenced to life in prison.

Macpherson inquiry: Failures

in the police investigation
! The Subsequent 1999 Macpherson Inquiry identified
serious failures in the handling of the murder
investigation, including:
! Failures to give first-aid to Stephen Lawrence at the scene;
! A lack of leadership and direction to the investigation;
! Insensitive and unsympathetic treatment of the Lawrence
family;
! Racist treatment of Stephen Lawrence’s friend, Duwayne
Brooks;
! Failures to effectively follow-up numerous leads;
! Delays in arresting key suspects.

 The Macpherson inquiry:

Main conclusions
! Amongst other things, the Macpherson Report concluded
that:
! Fundamental flaws in the investigation - “a combination of
professional incompetence, institutional racism and a
failure of leadership by senior officers" (Macpherson, 1999:
46.1).
! No evidence of collusion and corruption as having infected
the investigation (46.3)
! “Just as justice needs to be ‘seen to be done’ so fairness
must be ‘seen to be demonstrated’” (46.30) – referring to
stop and search
! “[T]he experience of black people over the last thirty years
has been ‘over policed and to a large extent under
protected’” (45.7).

21

Macpherson report:
Recommendations
! Scarman advanced the ‘bad apples’ thesis,
whilst Macpherson advanced the institutional
racism argument, leading to different sets of
recommendations.
! The Macpherson report made 70
recommendations, including:
! Increasing trust and confidence in the police amongst
minority ethnic communities by demonstrating
fairness.
! Improvements in the handling of racist incidents.
! Improvements in training, recruitment and retention,
as well as complaints.

22

The impact of Macpherson:

Areas of progress
! The impact of the Macpherson Report and its
recommendations has been mixed.
! Ten years on from Macpherson, progress has been made:
! 60 of the 70 recommendations have been implemented
(House of Commons, 2009).
! Institutional racism shook the police out of their
“complacency” (House of Commons, 2009: 2).
! The re-definition of a racist incident – anything perceived
as racist by the victim ! greater reporting of such crimes
(House of Commons, 2009).
! Improvements to the investigation of race crimes e.g.
Anthony Walker murder in 2005 (Patel and Tyrer, 2009).

23

… But in 2021 still more

progress needed
! Stop and search remains problematic due to growing
disproportionality for Black citizens ! over-
representation in CJS and lack of trust in ‘the system’ as a
whole (Lammy, 2017: 17-18).
! Up until 2020, forces struggled to meet targets in
Macpherson of employing 7% of officers from BAME
backgrounds, tho now more work to do to increase
representation at senior ranks (Home Office, 2020).
! Race-related hate crime put on the agenda by Macpherson
and there has been an overall upward trend 2003-15, but
it is still under-reported and increasingly so for white on
black hate crimes (Myers and Lantz, 2020).
! High level of concern about use of (lethal force) by the
police e.g. in police custody against BAME citizens, linked
to racist attitudes and stereotyping (Lindon and Roe, 2017)
24

… But in 2021 still more

progress needed
! Stop and search remains problematic
(Lammy, 2017: 17-18).
! Forces have struggled to recruit BAME
staff.
! Overall upward trend in reporting of hate
crime, but still under-reported and
increasingly so for white on black hate
crimes (Myers and Lantz, 2020).
! Concern about use of lethal force e.g. in
police custody against BAME citizens
(Lindon and Roe, 2017). 25

7.4 Stop and search:

Over-policing of BAME citizens by the
police?
A complex issue

French people, particularly those belonging to a minority,

are convinced that racial discrimination occurs most
frequently in interactions with law enforcement agents;
police officers, what ever their rank, are firmly of the view
that they are no more racist than the rest of the
population, or probably even less, and that they are
unjustly accused of discriminating among the public …
social scientists, often using statistical studies as evidence,
explain that not all differentiation is discrimination, that
not all discrimination is racial, that racial discrimination is
not necessarily the product of racist intent, and that racist
prejudices do not automatically lead to practices of racial
discrimination - in short, the issue is highly complex ...
" (Fassin, 2013: 151).
 The main legal frameworks
! A widely used power – 383,629 stops in 2018-19 (excl.
vehicle stops)
! Legislative basis for stops:
!Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence* Act 1984
!Section ‘Reasonable
23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
suspicion’
!Section 47 of the Firearms Act 1968 required

!Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act

1994
!Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (since effectively Possible if
repealed) police
authorized in
But replaced by S47A. defined areas/
specified
! What happens – public, invasive, de facto in detention.
times
* The most frequently used stop and search power

 Why is stop and search used?

! Official rationale - Crime control

! Investigation
! Prevention
! Deterrence – general or specific
! Unofficial rationale
! Social order maintenance, with regards
marginalised groups.
! Public reassurance
! Maintaining the authority of the police.

 Likelihood of being stop-

searched: police data
! Figure 1, shows police recorded data on
the likelihood of being stop-searched by
ethnic group and in comparison to white
suspects.
Figure 1 - Likelihood1 of being stopped and searched2 by BAME group, compared with
! Includes: those from White ethnic groups, England and Wales3, year ending March 2019 compared
with 2018
! Stop-searches under S1 PACE, s60 PACE and
47A of TACT 2000
! Self-defined ethnicity
! Data collected during the stop, which is
recorded by the police in full, with a
receipt given to the person stopped.
! Shows clear disproportionality. In 2018-19,
relative to white citizens, BAME citizens
were 4.3 times more likely to be stop-
searched and for Black or Black British
citizens they were 9.7 times more likely
to be stop-searched.
! In 2019-20, figures were 4.1 times more
likely and 8.9 times more likely for BAME
and Black citizens respectively (Home
Office, 2020).

What explains this

disproportionality?
Three main explanations:
1. Citizens’ individual characteristics incl. race/ethnicity
! police prejudice, stereotyping and implicit bias.
2. The characteristics of the places the police target (e.g.
high crime neighbourhoods with predom. Non-UK born
populations) ! institutional racism
3. The routine activities of citizens ! ethnic minorities
are more ‘available’ to be stopped and searched.
! Bradford (2017) concludes that people’s individual
characteristics (e.g. race/ethnicity), rather than places
and the things people do are the main cause.

 The consequences of
disproportionality
! Disproportionality adds to existing feelings
of resentment amongst minority ethnic
communities and the undermining of police-
community relations (Newburn et al. , 2016; This phrase – ‘the biggest gang’– and
variations on it was used by a sizeable
Sanders et al., 2010). number of respondents. This, again, in
our view reinforces one of the strongest
! Stop and search represents an important themes emerging from the analysis of
moment in which “the legitimacy of the interviews with rioters: the sense that
they were profoundly distrustful of the
police is tested, reproduced or diminished” police, often viewed the police service
(Bradford and Loader, 2016) monolithically as a single, hostile force,
and against whom much of the rioting
was directed … Reading the riots found
! Without this legitimacy, citizens are less stop and search to be a highly
likely to cooperate with the police. significant factor underpinning the
hostility expressed by many of those
! Indeed, we might see such practices as not involved in the riots toward the
police (Newburn et al., 2018: 219).
only criminogenic but potentially fuelling
riots, as was seen in Brixton in 1981 (after
so-called ‘Operation Swamp’) and London in
2011.

7.5 Key and concluding

points
Key points

! It is essential to place the topic of police, race and

ethnicity in its historical and socio-political context.
! This context has shaped the policing of racial and ethnic
groups in the 21st century:
1. The unequal position of BAME citizens in society has
been reinforced by police practices (e.g. stop and
search).
2. The lack of trust in the police amongst BAME citizens
(e.g. following BAME deaths in police custody).
3. The over policing and under protection of BAME
citizens (e.g. Stephen Lawrence case)

Further questions

1. What are the consequences of the over-

policing and under-protection of BAME
citizens for:
- Police relationships with BAME communities?
- Democratic policing?
- Society?

2. What should be done to improve the

policing of multi-ethnic societies?