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THE EXPERIENCE OF BLACK/MINORITY ETHNIC POLICE OFFICERS, SUPPORT STAFF, SPECIAL CONSTABLES AND RESIGNERS IN SCOTLAND

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

In Scotland, in recent memory, only one complaint by a black or minority ethnic police officer against fellow police officers or support staff about racism has been publicly acknowledged ¹. In contrast, numerous complaints of this nature have been made in England over the last few years ². Accordingly, the author designed this research to test the hypothesis that the black and minority ethnic police officers within Scottish Police Forces experience no racism from their colleagues.

The research was commissioned and funded by the Scottish Executive Central Research Unit.

Aims

The aims of this study are three fold:

• To ascertain the experiences of serving black and minority ethnic police officers, special constables and civilians in Scottish Police Forces.
• To explore the experiences of black and minority ethnic individuals who have resigned from any of the Scottish Police Forces; whether police officers, special constables or civilians.
• To ascertain the reasons why there have been so few official complaints about racism from within Scottish Police Forces.

Research Design and Methodology

A pilot study was conducted in the Lothian and Borders Police area. This was carried out to test the research instruments to be employed as well as the viability of a fuller study (See Appendix I). On completion of the pilot study, a fuller study was commissioned covering the remaining seven Police Forces in Scotland, namely, Central Scotland Police, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, Fife Constabulary, Grampian Police, Northern Constabulary, Strathclyde Police and Tayside Police.

Each Force provided contact details for their black and minority ethnic employees after having received the consent of the individuals concerned. It was important that anonymity and confidentiality were maintained throughout the research. This has been and remains the case.

The research commenced in April 2000. The author sent out sixty two questionnaires and received the first replies in the same month. A total of fifty two replies were received. Of these, forty seven indicated a willingness to participate in a face-to-face interview with the author, while five declined. Ten questionnaires were not returned.

Of the forty seven who agreed to be interviewed, a sample of thirty eight were selected and interviewed individually. Each interview comprised an invitation to each participant to give reasons for, and expand on, their answers in the questionnaire.

On completion of the interviews, focus groups were employed. These are tried and tested research methods for the purpose of qualitative research. The intention was to hold eight focus group meetings involving four or more, however, there were two focus group meetings where there were only two or three attendees. The remaining six focus group meetings were well attended and five of the ten people who had not returned their questionnaires ended up attending some of the focus group meetings.

The five officers who indicated that they did not want a face-to-face interview were invited to participate in the focus group discussions but they declined. Two new officers who joined the forces after the research had started were also afforded the opportunity to take part. These officers added value to the discussions in another way as they could talk about their recent experience either at the Scottish Police College or their perceptions of the police before they joined.

The researcher personally facilitated all the focus group discussions. The groups discussed the issues and attempted to answer the questions raised by the aims of the research

The focus group meetings lasted an average of two hours each. At the end of the series of focus group meetings, all the data was collated and analysed.

Table 1 Categories and numbers of participants at stages of research

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