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.
DOREEN Lawrence's tireless campaigning helped expose racism in the Met Police following the murder of her son Stephen.
Since then the brave mother has become a baroness and has been awarded an OBE. Let's take a closer look at her life.
Who is Doreen Lawrence?
PA:Press Association Doreen was awarded an OBE in 2003 for services to community relations
Doreen was born in Jamaica in 1952 and emigrated to England at the age of nine.
She completed her education in South East London, before becoming a bank worker.
Born ten years earlier, her future husband Neville also moved to Britain from Jamaica and worked initially as a handyman and decorator.
The couple met when Doreen was just 17, and they wed in 1972.
Together they had three children - Stephen, Stuart and Georgina.
PA:Press Association Stephen Lawrence was murdered at the age of 18 as he waited at a bus stop in South East London
The couple was propelled into the public eye after their son Stephen was fatally stabbed at a bus stop in South East London in 1993.
Their tireless campaigning led to reforms in policing and brought the world's gaze onto the "institutional racism" of the Met Police.
The couple divorced in 1999, six years after their son's death.
But at the time Doreen said the divorce "wasn't due to any pressure from the death of my son or the legal proceedings that we embarked upon in the last six years".
When did Doreen become a baroness?
Doreen Lawrence, now 65, was awarded an OBE in 2003 for services to community relations.
Her book And I Still Rise: Seeking Justice for Stephen was published in 2006, detailing her life following her son's murder.
In 2013 she was appointed Baroness, and sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords as a working peer.
Doreen founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust to promote a positive community legacy in her son's name.
In April 2014, she was named as Britain's most influential woman in the BBC Woman's Hour power list 2014.
In January 2016 she was unveiled as the new Chancellor of De Montfort University, Leicester.
In April 2018 Doreen told the Daily Mail that the Met should stop their continued investigation into Stephen's death if they don't have any fresh leads.
Stephen Lawrence documentary fury over Met cop who smirked that Duwayne Brooks 'ran away and left his mate'
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