National police chiefs’ lead on race and religion urges action on issues such as recruitment of black officers
Police forces have been too slow to improve their record on race since the murder of Stephen Lawrence, and their legitimacy is being damaged by continued shortcomings, a police chief has said.
Ch Con Jon Boutcher, the national police chiefs’ lead on race and religion, told the Guardian that he was challenging fellow law enforcement leaders to do more, in an interview to mark the 25th anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s death.
The police bungling of the murder case, which allowed the killers to go free because of prejudice and incompetence in the ranks, led to the Macpherson inquiry, which found the Metropolitan police was guilty of institutional racism.
The inquiry findings in 1999 led the police chiefs to promise change, under huge pressure from the then Labour government.
Boutcher – in a break from the line taken by police chiefs since the landmark findings – said changes had not gone fast or far enough: “My challenge to policing is that the pace of change is too slow, since Macpherson. In my view it could have been faster.”
“I think it’s about commitment at a senior leadership level. I don’t accept that everything has been done ... There have been the words, but not the actions. We need to make sure we have words and actions.”
Boutcher is the chief constable of the Bedfordshire force, and before that was a counter-terrorism detective in the Met.
The 25th anniversary of Lawrence’s murder by a racist gang, and the police failings that were subsequently revealed, have led to a stocktake of how much progress has been made.
Boutcher said: “The police establishment need challenging on race. I am optimistic about the future. We need to move forward at a quicker pace. If we don’t remember the lessons of history, then there is a danger you repeat the mistakes of history.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Stephen Lawrence was murdered in London in a racially-motivated attack on 22 April 1993. Photograph: Met police/EPA
He said the lessons of the Lawrence case had been forgotten by some, as had the enduring importance of race to policing.
Race is continually at the heart of the biggest issues facing policing, from the over-targeting of black people for stop and search, to knife crime, female genital mutilation, honour-based violence, modern slavery and terrorism, Boutcher added.
“Race is at the core of so much, we should always have race as a priority regarding representation and community confidence. Race has not continued to be the priority it should have over the last 25 years,” he said.
“It has dropped off the agenda at times because of other priorities. It is too important to fall off the agenda at any time. The representation in policing from our diverse communities is still not as advanced as it should be.”
Just 6% of officers are from an ethnic minority background, compared with the national average of 14%. In 1999 the figure was just 2%.
After Macpherson, police chiefs from the 43 forces in England and Wales agreed to a government target to have the same proportion of black officers in their ranks as the communities they serve. They were given a decade to achieve it; none ever did. While she was home secretary, Theresa May pressed the police for more sweeping reforms.
Boutcher said that at current rate of progress, “it will take decades to end the racial disparity”. The biggest race gap is in London, where just 13% of the Metropolitan police are from an ethnic minority but 43% of the capital’s population are from ethnic minorities, meaning Britain’s biggest force is thousands of black and Asian officers short.
Boutcher, echoing sentiments voiced previously only in private by police chiefs, said: “Racial disparity in policing undermines legitimacy and threatens policing by consent, increasing the likelihood of adverse response or disorder relating to stop and search, or in critical incident scenarios.
“I am confident that the progress we have made around recruitment and workforce representation will grow into police forces which are rich in diversity so that we can serve the public with complete legitimacy.”
Boutcher set up an advisory group to spur police on, picking hard hitters on race such as David Lammy MP, the Black Police Association, and Liberty, the civil rights group.
Martha Spurrier, the director of Liberty, said: “Police have made some important progress since Stephen Lawrence’s tragic death – but a quarter of a century later, we’re still waiting for powers like stop and search to be used proportionately, the end to police databases that perpetuate bias, and an investment in community-based policing practices to tackle the racial disparities that still run deep in UK law enforcement.”
Macpherson’s key finding was that the police were blighted by institutional racism. Some police chiefs say that criticism no longer applies but Boutcher said: “I think it is an area where we have not earned the right to be comfortable and complacent.”
Also on the advisory group is Tola Munro, president of the National Black Police Association, who said: “The progress is very stilted, we seem to be making the same mistakes. We are still institutionally racist.”
Boutcher said police in New York, where more than 50% of officers are from a minority background, are far more diverse than their counterparts in London: “We could have done more, we can do more and we need to do more. Maybe the American example is something we can learn from.”
But representation is not a panacea, Boutcher said, pointing out that the New York Police Department faces claims of discrimination and bias: “It’s not just about representation, it is about behaviours.”
In his own Bedforshire force, the proportion of ethnic minority officers has doubled during his two years in charge, sometimes in the face of opposition and inertia. “You have to go above and beyond; you have to show you mean it, ” he said.
Before becoming a police chief, Boutcher was a career detective and led investigations for Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, including the hunt for men who tried to bomb London on 21 July 2005 and the investigations into the attempted car bombing of London’s Haymarket in 2007 and the Glasgow airport attack.
This three-part documentary on the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence places it in the context of early 90s Britain – and shows that the same problems remain today
It is important to continue to talk about Stephen Lawrence. “Because of how Stephen was killed, and also the way in which we were treated as a family,” says Doreen Lawrence, his mother. “Also just to talk about Stephen a bit more. So people can see he had a life, not just in death, but before.”
Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees’s new three-part documentary (BBC One) begins with Doreen. She is getting ready for her interview and taking a sip from a cup of tea while sitting in front of a dark-grey backdrop. The look of the film is immediately arresting. The interviews are all filmed with the same backdrop, which is a little less dark where it has been lit around the subject. Then the subjects are filmed close up, sometime very close, so that only part of the face is visible.
Stephen Lawrence 25 years on: 'It was the moment we lost trust in the system' Read more
It gives a uniformity to it – and a seriousness. More like testimony than interview. Everyone is treated the same: Doreen and Neville Lawrence; family friends and relations; various (invariably) former police officers. Duwayne Brooks, who was attacked with his best friend but then treated more like a suspect than a victim, features heavily, as does the Lawrence’s lawyer, Imran Khan. Paul Dacre is here, because he is the editor of the Daily Mail, as well as once having employed Neville as a plasterer. Theresa May features in Thursday’s final part. Alexandra Marie, who was a 19-year-old au pair in south London in April 1993 and who witnessed the attack, is also present, as is Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who played Doreen in Paul Greengrass’s drama The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, clips of which are used here between the testimony, like classy reconstructions.
Yes, there have been many other films about Stephen’s murder, but none so exhaustive and meticulous. It puts it into the context of early 90s Britain: happy and Soul II Soul inclusive on the surface, but with pockets of hatred, no-go areas for people of colour, more racially motivated attacks and murders, a BNP on the rise, and institutional racism coursing through the veins of the police.
This first episode, called The Loss of Joy – a double meaning, because Joy was Doreen’s pet name in Jamaica – puts it into an even wider context. It covers Doreen coming to Britain in 1963, where she met and married Neville and had Stephen. She found joy for 30 years, until 22 April 1993, when it was torn away. Doreen was away that morning, on a course. “Dad, are you OK?” the 18-year-old asked Neville, who was staring out of the window. Those were the last words Neville heard from his son. Later that day, Stephen and Duwayne were at a bus stop, waiting, for too long – you know how it goes. The passing of 25 years doesn’t make it any less hard to hear Duwayne describe what happened.
Then came a family’s grief, no arrests, a breakdown in communication and of trust. It took a visit from the most famous man in the world, Nelson Mandela, for anything to happen.
One of the most chilling moments in the first episode is audio of police interviews with the suspects. The repeated, cocky “No comment” and “No reply” from Jamie Acourt, Neil Acourt and David Norris, as you would expect. But what DS John Davidson says to Gary Dobson is just as shocking. “Personally, I don’t think it was a racist attack,” Davidson says to the suspect. “I think it’s incidental.”
Two black youths are attacked, unprovoked, by a bunch of white strangers shouting the N-word. Yeah, nothing obviously racist about that, more like incidental. Even if it was the last incident in Stephen’s life, while some of his killers remain free.
A quarter of a century doesn’t make it any less pertinent or relevant, either. The anniversary is the reason for the timing of the film. But its broadcast coincides with the National Crime Agency considering a new inquiry that could see four former detectives face criminal charges. The investigation continues. Add to that the rise of hate crimes that Brexit and economic uncertainty have triggered and a resurgence of the far right. Meanwhile, people who came to this country at the same time as Doreen and Neville are being threatened with deportation.
Stephen’s murder asked searching questions and had a profound effect on Britain. The conversation isn’t over, though. It is, as his mother says, important to continue to talk about him and about his death. Because it continues to be important.
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IN 1993 Stephen Lawrence was murdered while he waited for a bus in a racist attack which unleashed a public outcry and put the Metropolitan Police under intense scrutiny.
The teen's parents were forced to wait for more than a decade for any sort of justice following the horrific killing - here's what happened.
EPA Stephen Lawrence was the victim of a racist murder in 1993
Who was Stephen Lawrence?
Stephen was born on September 13, 1974 at Greenwich District Hospital in South East London to Neville and Doreen Lawrence.
The couple moved to London after emigrating from Jamaica in the 1960s.
Stephen had two younger siblings - Stuart and Georgina - and the family grew up in Plumstead.
They attended Trinity Methodist Church in Woolwich, where Stephen was christened.
Stephen's character at home and school was shaped by an ethos of tolerance, religious faith and education.
As a young child, Stephen was good at most subjects at school but loved to draw and paint and favoured art and maths.
By the age of seven, he had resolved to become an architect - a career path he never deviated from.
As his confidence in himself and others grew, friends say he developed a good and trusting nature.
At one time he worked as a film extra alongside actor Denzel Washington in the film For Queen and Country.
Stephen also excelled out of the classroom. He was an active member of the Cambridge Harriers Athletic Club and once ran for Greenwich.
As a Cub, then Scout, he won badges for everything from cooking to sailing.
At the time of his death, aged 18, he was studying A-levels in English, craft, design and technology, and physics at Blackheath Bluecoats Church of England School.
What happened to him?
Stephen was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in Eltham, South-East London, in a case that rocked the country.
The black teenager was murdered as he waited at a bus stop with his friend Duwayne Brooks on April 22 1993.
What followed was a years long battle for justice led by Stephen's family and judicial reviews that would expose racism within the Met.
The day after the killing a letter naming suspects was left in a phone box.
In May and June 1993 police arrested five suspects and charged two, but the charges were dropped a month later with cops saying Duwayne's ID evidence was unreliable.
The following year the CPS again refused to prosecute suspects, despite new evidence being brought forward.
Stephen's angry parents launched a private prosecution against Gary Dobson, Luke Knight and Neil Acourt, but it failed in 1996 when Duwayne's ID evidence was declared inadmissible.
In February 1997 an inquest ruled that Stephen was killed in a "completely unprovoked racist attack by five youths".
The following day the Daily Mail named suspects as Stephen's killers on its front page and invited them to sue the paper.
In May 2011 Gary Dobson and David Norris finally faced trial for Stephen's murder following a review of forensic evidence that found the victim's DNA on the defendants' clothes.
Both received life sentences with Dobson jailed for a minimum of 15 years and two months and Norris for 14 years and three months.
Stephen's mum Doreen and dad Neville campaigned tirelessly for justice and policing reforms following his murder and his mum is now a Baroness sitting in the House of Lords.
PA:Press Association Gary Dobson (left) and David Norris are the only two suspects to have been convicted of the murder
Who were Stephen Lawrence's killers?
Only two men have been convicted of killing Stephen Lawrence - David Norris and Gary Dobson.
The judge at their trial described the attack as a "crime committed for no other reason than racial hatred".
Mr Justice Treaty continued: "A totally innocent 18 year old youth on the threshold of a promising life was brutally cut down in the street in front of eye witnesses by a racist thuggish gang.
"You were both members of that gang. I have no doubt at all that you fully subscribed to its views and attitudes."
At the time of the killing Norris, then 16, was living in a gated home thanks to his drug baron dad - but when arrested in 2010 he resided in a bedsit selling scrap metal.
In 1994, police using covert surveillance on Dobson captured Norris spewing vile racist language in a shocking rant.
He said: “If I was going to kill myself do you know what I'd do? I'd go and kill every black, every P***, every mug, every copper that I know.
“I'd go down to Catford and places like that with two submachine guns and I'm telling you I'd take one of them. Skin the black alive, mate. Torture him, set him alight.
“I'd blow their two legs and arms off and say: ‘Go on, you can swim home now.”
In 2002 he had been jailed for 18 months for a racist attack on an off-duty black police officer.
Dobson, who was 17 at the time of the attack, lived on the Brook Estate in South-East London.
In 2010 he had been jailed for five years for drug dealing.
The Met have continued to appeal for information that could identify other suspects in the case in the hope of bringing further prosecutions.
What did the Macpherson report conclude?
The damning Macpherson Report was published in February 1999 and accused the Metropolitan Police of "institutional racism".
Carried out by retired High Court judge Sir William Macpherson, the report was ordered by then-Home Secretary Jack Straw.
It gave 70 recommendations for the force aimed at improving attitudes and hiring more black and minority officers.
The report has since been regarded as a watershed in British race relations.
the Macpherson report also suggested the partial revocation of the double jeopardy rule that prevented a person being tried twice for the same crime in instances where substantial new evidence had come to light.
