Avon and Somerset Police has published an update on how it is tackling racism, one year after its chief constable described it as ‘institutionally racist’.
The police force said it had reviewed officer and staff recruitment and promotion, had been carrying out quarterly reviews of all vetting refusals for black candidates, and was encouraging staff to disclose their ethnicity and share protected characteristics to help the organisation build support networks and design services to meet the needs of everyone in policing.
In her forward to a report, chief constable Sarah Crew, who last year admitted that racism and bias permeated the force’s culture, said that her public statement about her concerns was not welcomed by everyone, and that some staff and officers had been unsettled and hurt by it.
Police racism
Police chief describes her force as ‘institutionally racist’
“We continue to hold courageous conversations internally to help staff understand the path we are on and to challenge the workforce to reflect on the culture in their teams and how it can be improved,” she said.
Avon and Somerset Police has also established a diverse outreach team to support the recruitment of people from diverse backgrounds.
The team identify and break down barriers that may be preventing people from underrepresented communities from joining the police, and support and mentor them through the application and assessment process.
The outreach group also runs sessions to help staff and officers better understand racism and race issues. More than 22 of these sessions were held last year, reaching 1,200 staff.
Other workforce-related actions include:
- a programme of Race Matters events to engage staff in plans to become an anti-racist organisation.
- the HR team working on a bespoke feedback form to be used in individual performance portfolios, so that learning from scrutiny of an individual officer’s use of force can be monitored and their individual development supported
- launching a new stop and search policy that will support officers to use their powers legitimately, to take items that cause harm off the streets. It sets clear expectations of officer conduct.
It is also finalising its anti-racism strategy which has been co-produced with ethnic minority communities and staff.
Crew said: “Had I not acknowledged that institutional racism exists in the organisation, I’m sure the work we are doing in this area would not have been successful – the communities most directly affected by it would not trust us, work with us or take us at our word. Without trust there is no consent, and without consent we no longer have legitimacy to police. It is this simple. It is fundamental.
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“In the past year over 70 people have joined our Race Matters Community Network, to help us shape anti-racist policing in Avon and Somerset. I’m so grateful to all those people, whose input and voices are central to the changes we are making.”
