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THE EXPERIENCE OF BLACK/MINORITY ETHNIC POLICE OFFICERS, SUPPORT STAFF, SPECIAL CONSTABLES AND RESIGNERS IN SCOTLAND
CHAPTER FIVE
Conclusion
With 69% of participants having experienced some form of racism within the service, the hypothesis that racism does not exist within Scottish Police Forces cannot be supported. The number of complaints may be small but that is due to other reasons such as the fear of backlash. Such fears aggravate the situation and feed a perception that racism is much more prevalent within the service than it actually is.
Much of the effort aimed at fighting racism over the last few years is believed to be for public consumption and appears to be tokenistic . This may give the impression that lip service only is paid to the issue and that genuine commitment does not exist.
Most officers 4 failed to understand issues of discrimination, how to tackle it and where the responsibility rested for doing so. There were issues of organisational, structural, cultural and personal discrimination uncovered by the research. An issue such as that highlighted in the section dealing with the complaint system is an organisational one but it puts the black and minority ethnic officer at extreme disadvantage and places the police authorities in a tight corner.
With the current recruitment drive, there is a likelihood that the numbers of black and minority ethnic officers will increase, but there may be a retention problem in the near future if many young people who join the Police Service today do not accept any form of racism as quid pro quo for maintaining their jobs or progress in their chosen careers. This is in stark contrast to their predecessors.
Recommendations5
Some of the recommendations here may have already been addressed by some Forces in one manner or another and may also have been addressed by the new National Equal Opportunities Training Strategy.
It is recommended that:
- The Police Service should adopt a mentoring programme for all new recruits.
During the research some officers of considerable experience in terms of length of service said they would be happy to mentor new officers if required. Mentoring could be extremely beneficial to the service since both mentors and recruits benefit from the exercise. White officers should also be encouraged to become mentors and the programme should be open to anybody who might be experiencing difficulties because of their ethnicity.
- Create an environment of zero tolerance to racist jokes and attitudes regardless of the source.
About thirty to thirty five years ago, it was only a misdemeanour for an officer to be drunk whilst on duty, today it is not only forbidden to be in a drunken state while on duty, it is generally accepted by officers that it is gross misconduct to be drunk on duty and that this could easily lead to dismissal. It is this kind of attitudinal restructuring that is required if racism is to be eliminated in the Police Service. It is necessary to take a firm and visible stand against racism so that perpetrators know they will not get away with racist behaviour. At the same time, racial awareness training programmes should indicate that anti-racism is not an addendum but an integral part of policing in modern society which is multi-racial and multi-ethnic.
- Awareness training programmes should not only cover service delivery but also issues in employee relations.
This is important, as it seems that a majority of white officers who know not to use racist comments when dealing with members of the public, still use such language in their interactions with minority ethnic colleagues at work. It is as if they have one rule when they deal with members of the public and a different rule when dealing with fellow officers.
- There should be specialist equality units within Human Resources Departments of Police Forces. A single equality officer is an inadequate provision.
- Procedures for handling complaints of racial harassment/incidents should be overhauled.
This is necessary to boost confidence in the system.
- Overexposure of black and minority ethnic officers for publicity purposes (with regards to equality issues) should be discouraged.
It should be realised that overexposure creates an additional burden for these officers and creates resentment from their white colleagues who think these officers are getting preferential treatment.
- Openness should be encouraged with respect to targeting and encouraging people from minority ethnic communities to embark on careers in the Police.
Officers should be educated as to the importance and necessity of such targeting and encouragement. (In 1999 the Home Office said 25% of its staff would be from the minority ethnic communities in ten years. Today 28% of its staff are from those communities. At senior level, the proportion has trebled since 1999.)
- Diversity issues should made part of the core competencies on which officers are appraised.
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