Police defend racism guidelines
The chair of the Police Complaints Authority, Sir Alistair Graham, has defended new guidelines on the treatment of police officers found guilty of racism.
The PCA has issued new guidelines on how forces should deal with officers found guilty of racism in answer to the McPherson inquiry.
The McPherson inquiry was set up to look at the circumstances surrounding the murder of the black teenager, Stephen Lawrence. He died at the age of 18 after being stabbed in an unprovoked attack by a gang of white youths at a bus stop in Eltham, south east London ten years ago. The McPherson report called on the police to ensure that all officers found guilty of racism or discrimination to be sacked.
However, the new guidelines have moved away from this. Instead the chair of the PCA argued on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme that it was essential to differentiate between degrees of racism on the part of officers and assess each incident by a ‘case by case basis’.
Rejecting suggestions that the guidelines risked encouraging a ‘more tolerant’ culture towards racist behaviour and attitudes in the police force, he stressed: ‘We are trying to be more rigorous in making sure that complainants who suffer experience of racial discrimination are more likely to see some action follow from their complaints’.
In a statement launching the guidelines, Sir Alistair commented, ‘Racially discriminatory behaviour is unacceptable and there can be no doubt that everyone is well aware of this. The way in which to question police officers and witnesses to establish whether they were motivated by race has long been a problem for the police service and the PCA. I know that police forces share our commitment to ensuring that allegations of racial discrimination are rigorously investigated.’
Milena Buyum, of the National Assembly Against Racism, called for an immediate rethink on the guidelines arguing that a dilution of the McPherson report’s recommendations was unacceptable.
Ms Buyum argued that whilst each case should be assessed on its own merits, police officers should be made to realise that racist or discriminatory behaviour would not be tolerated.
The new guidelines have received the support of the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Police Federation and the National Black Police Association.
