The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is still predominately a ‘white man’s country’ – propter hoc the police service would also be, except in those rare cases such as the former South Africa under apartheid, (until recently) the Israeli police presence in the ‘Occupied Territories’ and other such former colonial type set-ups. Though this may be a crude simplification, it is nonetheless a crude simplification held by many immigrants (of more than one generation) and their issue. The Police as an institution have been accused of being sexist, racist and homophobic with a ‘canteen culture’ that feeds into such prejudice. But would not any predominately male and working class institution be seen thus in a country with a population that has a clear majority-minority ethnic demographic? Obviously this is not a uniquely British phenomenon, and in comparing American, British and European figures on ethnic and gender diversity within their respective law enforcement agencies, we can see a not completely surprising or significantly different pattern.
Zhao, He and Lovrich (2005), in a longitudinal study using data collected on a representative sample of police departments serving average sized populations across the United States in 1993, 1996, and 2000, assessed the institutional and sociological variables impacting the recruitment of BEM (African American and Latino) officers. Their initial findings were that a significant minority population was among the most reliable predictors of BEM officer employment in city police departments. Further analysis indicated that a 1 percent increase in African American populations was reflected in a 0.52 percent increase in the hiring of African American, and showed a similar effect on the recruitment of Hispanic officers.
“There is widespread agreement that the composition of our police forces must reflect the make-up of the society they serve. In one important respect at least, it does not do so: in the police, as in other important areas of society, the ethnic minorities are very significantly underrepresented …vigorous action is required if the police are to become more representative of all the community they serve … involving more black people in the police will take time”.
One would be forgiven for thinking that these words were those of Commissioner Hogan-Howe, the incumbent Metropolitan Police Commissioner. They are, however, those of Lord Scarman (1981) in his now infamous parliamentary submission on the causes of the Brixton Riots (Scarman, 1981: 122- 3, 126-7). The UK was experiencing a national recession, and a housing shortage with increasing numbers of low income households and one-parent families. According to Lord Scarman the riots were not planned, but ‘a spontaneous eruption of built up resentment sparked by particular incidents which caused a tendency towards violent remonstration amongst a backdrop of complex political, social and economic factors’ (Scarman, 1981)
Thirty one years on from Scarman and still there are real tensions and trust issues between the police and BMEs. Lord Scarman made two very clear and fundamental recommendations: that `vigorous action’ was needed to dramatically increase the recruitment of police officers from ethnic minority backgrounds; and that specialist training designed to facilitate the policing of ‘a multi-racial society’ should be implemented as soon as operationally possible.
Just under two decades after Scarman, a second major report by Sir William Macpherson (1999), provided an alternative narrative on the situation. Macpherson’s report was the result of an inquiry into the police malpractice and failings of Stephen Lawrence’s murder investigation.
Macpherson reported that the Metropolitan Police had ignored much of Lord Scarman’s report and that at the time of Lawrence’s murder in 1993 there was deep antipathy towards the police from the sectors of society most susceptible to victimisation and offending – those of ethnic minority. Of the full gamut of proposals offered by Macpherson, the two that prompted the most immediate reaction from the Home Secretary were all too familiar: they were in fact the fundamentals of Scarman’s recommendations - recruit more black and Asian officers and improve training for ‘a multi-racial’ society, which in the politically correct newspeak of New Labour had become known as ‘cultural diversity training’ (Scarman, 1981; Cathcart, 1999; Macpherson, 1999; Cashmore, 2002; Hitchens, 2012).
Positive discrimination can do more harm than good, and the motivations behind these drives are questioned by a suspicious target community. Neither of these two reports pretended to be modern day Alexandrian swords, forged to slice through the Gordian knot that was lamentable police-community race relations: both supported dire analyses on the ‘institutionalised’ nature and state of racism and of its impact on policing; both provided fuel for the nation’s media; and both induced months of anxiety at Scotland Yard and Whitehall. But the fact that Macpherson made in essence the same recommendations as Scarman suggests the original report had made little, if any, impact at all. But reaction to the latter report involved the Home Secretary’s specifying ‘targets’ for all police services on the numbers of ethnic minority recruits they should aim for. He also ordered the British police to refocus their training (Scarman, 1981; Macpherson, 1999; Cashmore, 2002; Bennetto, 2009; Hitchens, 2011).
Like his predecessor before him, Macpherson identified shortcomings in police training, especially in the area of ‘valuing cultural diversity’. Macpherson concluded that the paucity of racism awareness training was also a top-down problem as much as it was a bottom-up one, adding that this matter had to be addressed (Cashmore, 2002; Bennetto, 2009).
While most previous research has revealed the scale and nature of racism in the British police as experienced and understood by BEM officers, Cashmore (2002) centred specifically on their perspectives on the two main policy issues raised by Macpherson. While many BEM officers play public lip service to the benefits of Home Office initiatives, there is often significant incongruence with their ‘pensées privés’. Suspicions of the ‘central policy objective’ concern, amongst other things, the implicit purpose it serves: an operational tool in the fight against institutionalized racism both in the police service and other agencies, and that the recruitment of BEM officers may have other, less salubrious functions, according to some officers (Cashmore, 2002).
HM Constabulary has come some way in improving its situation, but even in the C21st the waters are just as muddy. The National Black Police Association told the Guardian in 2008 that it was planning to organise a march on Scotland Yard of black and Asian officers from across the country, as a vote of no confidence in the management, and launch a campaign warning young would-be officers from diverse backgrounds not to join the Met. Surely this would be counterproductive to reaching a more diverse and representative force? The question emerging from Cashmore’s (2002) research is whether BEM officers think training and targeted recruitment is the most appropriate and effective way of preparing officers and encouraging BEM recruitment.
From the moment the damning Scarman Report highlighted the significantly disproportionate number of BEM officers, the police itself has suggested that the reasons for this may be down to outside influences. Factors cited include the reluctance of South Asian families to encourage their children to choose law enforcement over such traditional fields as medical and legal careers; and peer-group pressure on Afro-Caribbean youths not to join an organisation that is synonymous with the enemy (Kaminski, 1993; Cashmore, 2002; Pennant, 2005; Sharp and Atherton, 2007). There is also a sense of apprehension: increased recruitment and valuing cultural diversity training, far from being the near-panaceas many hope them to be, may actually have detrimental effects (Cashmore, 2002; Sharp and Atherton, 2007).
We must, when considering recruitment and numbers (both BME and Caucasian) of women, always bear in mind the role of women in the ethnic communities’ ‘traditional societies’ – and their role within these communities in contemporary ‘multicultural’ British society. Ideas of appropriate gender specific comportment are heterogeneous, varying among cultures and era, and some aspects of which are put under greater scrutiny than others (Rosaldo, Lamphere and Bamberger, 1974). We must not forget that religion plays a significant part in a particular society’s construction of its preferred gender roles,
e.g., for many conservative Christian denominations such as the Roman Catholic or Easter Orthodox Churches, leadership of the communities is restricted to men, and the expected role of woman is that of an obedient wife and dutiful mother. Among observant Jewish communities, the women's section is separated from the men's' section in the synagogue by the mechitza: men are not permitted to pray in the presence of women, to prevent distraction and for the Orthodox, it is required that the mechitza is of a type which absolutely prevents the men from seeing the women. The position of women in Jewish social constructions can be highlighted in the their inability to file for divorce, their lack of religious authority - a minyan of ten men is required for communal prayer... not even a thousand women would suffice (Berman, 1973; Sherbok, 2003; Sassoon, 2011). The Hindu tradition portrays women in contradictory ways. On one hand, women’s fertility is given great value, and on the other, female sexuality is depicted as potentially dangerous and destructive, and they are traditionally subordinate to men (Sinha, 1993).
Women do not want to be admitted to the ranks out of political correctness, or due to statutory quotas, but because they deserve the Queen’s Warrant and further promotion on their particular merits. Women make up a significant percentage of the population, and in the interests of proportionality let alone equality, this should be reflected in the Constabulary.
With this in mind, the following demonstrates that the issue of gender equality isn’t just a British problem. The Generalitat de Cataluña legislated for the creation of a commission for addressing policies in gender equality matters in the police force of the Generalitat, the Mossos d’Esquadra. The commission came about as a response to the Minister of Home Affairs’ call to promote and institute a professional culture wholly committed to the equal opportunities of women and men when it comes to recruitment, promotion and a professional career, and in ameliorating the operational conditions for public servants. Furthermore, the aim was to focus all its policy decision-making on eliminating undesirable (prejudiced) attitudes and behaviour with respect to a person’s gender, when such attitudes or conduct are intended to violate his or her dignity or create an intimidating, hostile, demeaning, degrading or offensive environment. One area of focus in particular were measures to promote access to, and integration and length of service in the police force among persons of both genders: the immediate aim was for the proportion of women, currently accounting for 17.56% of members of the Mossos d’Esquadra, to increase to 25%. The long term aim being to achieve an operational environment composed of 60% men and 40% women deemed as better representing Cataluña’s social environment (Ministry of Home Affairs, 2006).
Another key element in minority recruitment is the role and philosophical motivation of the established police forces in the countries of origin of the targeted communities, and therefore the potentially inherited biases held against them. For many of the immigrant communities in Britain from all across the world, the police are an aggressive, self-serving, State instrument of oppression: feared rather than respected, interactions with whom are viewed with an informed suspicion and as an uncomfortable necessity. The concept of an independent police force is more often than not, an alien one, and one of ridicule. In the ‘old country’ the police oppress and neglect and are often corrupt, in this brave new world they do nothing to help, they oppress through neglect and seem indifferent to the plight of the minorities if not at times being the perpetrators of thinly veiled racism (Kaminski,1993; Harriott, 2000; Zhao et al., 2005; Taylor, 2011).
Chief Constable (Ret) Peter Neyroud QPM, the former head of the National Police Improvement Agency found, in his inquiry commissioned by the Home Secretary Rt. Hon Theresa May MP, that the Constabulary remained under the dominance of an “overwhelming white male culture” that continued to operate on an ‘old boys’ type network (Neyroud, 2011; Travis, 2011). His report concluded that the only way to make a difference and foster a culture of greater equality and mutual trust was through the increased representation of women and black and minority ethnic groups (BMEs) at all ranks”
The Neyroud Report went further and estimated at the current rate, another decade would pass before there was 7%[1] of BME officers in the senior ranks, and a further seven years (give or take) before it was achieved across the whole of the police – almost 20 years (Travis, 2011).
In its equality impact assessment the report suggested that not only was the male culture both pervasive and overwhelming, but it also acted as the single factor preventing the development of the Constabulary into a more diverse institution (Neyroud, 2011; Travis, 2011).
Yet in spite of the numerous manifestations of positive discrimination or ‘affirmative action’ - such as targeted recruitment drives, increased airtime of coloured officers etc which are still cited as being very effective - the report still found that the culture of the Constabulary and its current set up was still predominantly white male, and BME officers still found it difficult to break through the ranks, highlighting the lack of trust in the ‘system’ where one has to “walk the walk” rather than merely “talk the talk” – though this was not just limited to race, as the attitudes expressed in regards to gender were mirrored (Neyroud, 2011; Travis, 2011). Bennetto (2009) however, argued that there ought be greater exploration and exploitation of positive action to encourage more ethnic minorities to join the police.
Establishing a presence for ethnic minority people in the British police force will not necessarily advance the interests of ethnic minorities (Kaminski , 1993; Cashmore, 2002; Holdaway and O’Neil, 2004). Imposing a multicultural mentality upon the British police will have the same effect as New Labour’s imposition of multiculturalism on a uniculturalist society: through fear of being labelled a bigot, tensions will bubble away under the surface (Cashmore, 2002; Hitchens).
On the 14th November 2012 the EU Commissioner for Justice Mrs. Viviane Radding informed the BBC of the new EU directive providing for a quota of 40% of every Board of Directors to be filled by women by 2020. Whilst this is exclusively dealing with the financial sector and those at the very top, her comments in regards to Norway and the failings of its already established quota on improving the presence of women in less senior positions, and her feelings on quotas themselves was quite revealing: that quotas were viewed with scepticism by those it related to; it was felt to be of greater importance that the most appropriate candidate was selected for the job, regardless of gender, race or any other irrelevances.
At the risk of being accused of ‘reductio ad absurdum’, a cautionary note on potential proportional hysteria. How far do we go? Do we, in full prostration before the altar of proportionality, recruit along the lines of the National Census? Surely if the battle lines are being drawn along numerical proportionality and there is a percentage of the population that harbours racial, religious or misogynist prejudices, then that percentage would also manifest itself within the ‘representative police service’ that is currently à la mode amongst the socio-philosophic and egalitarian reformers within the police authorities pursuing a utopian answer to law enforcement. What of the enemy within?
Cashmore (2007) found that BEM officers agree, despite the fact that under-recruitment has remained tenacious in its resistance to many of the in-house initiatives, tangible changes could be realised by ameliorating the opportunities and conditions available to serving officers from targeted backgrounds. Zhao et al’s (2005) study also found that the presence of an ethnic minority mayor and police chief had a highly significant correlationary association with increased incidences of BEM police officer employment.
Zhao et al (2005) felt it was important to note that the presence of neither formal nor informal Affirmative Action programs predicted the employment figures of BEM officers. The frequency distributions for these programs for the survey findings showed that there was in fact a substantial decrease in the number of formal programs in operation; the incidences of informal programs remained basically the same. One reason offered in explanation for a drop in programs, was that after nearly thirty years of implementation, many agencies had already increased the number of minority officers in their departments quite significantly.
One thing that all those concerned agree on is that some form of education and training is the way forward. The reports have since made the concepts of increased BEM police and greater racism awareness or cultural diversity training seem obvious, inevitable and necessary (Scarman, 1981; Macpherson, 1999; Cashmore, 2002; Neyroud, 2011).
Change takes time. Things get worse before they get better. Rome was not built in a day. All three of these statements have two things in common: they are all clichés but they are all true. The number of female and BEM police officers in today’s force is more representative of the national demographic picture. Yes, the police service has made substantial progress in the recruitment, representation and progression of female officers over the last 10 years, yes there are more female officers and staff than ever before, female recruitment is strong, and women officers’ chances of promotion are generally on a par with their male counterparts but in spite of that, there is still some way to go (Home Office, 2010). Yes, the predominately white working class male police culture amongst the rank and file of the Constabulary has had, and continues to have negative implications on the communities it serves, but this evidently is not the only explanation for ethnic and gender disproportionality in the police. Cultural and sub-cultural mistrust, inherited bias, an overzealous media, population numbers and intergenerational tensions all have their role to play. Until the Constabulary is seen as an attractive, inclusive and rewarding career path for would be public servants leaving education at 18years old and graduates (not just via the High Potential Development Scheme) alike, not to mention the ever vociferous middle classes, the picture is likely to stay much the same.
(Macpherson, 1999)
[1] 7% being the national average in the community
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