The chief constable of Avon and Somerset Police has described her own force as ‘institutionally racist’.
After analysing the police force against criteria following a report into the region’s criminal justice system, Sarah Crew said she was “in no doubt” that racism and racial bias were reinforced within systems across the force.
Crew said: “We are not representative of the community we police. I am now owning the definition of institutional racism.
This is recognition that the system is unfair, and our job is to make it fair.”
The force’s Police Federation has objected to her statement and said it could divide officers and communities.
It used a set of criteria created by Baroness Louise Casey after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police officer.
Institutional racism
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Discussions about racism in the region’s criminal justice system arose after Desmond Brown published a report titled Identifying disproportionality, which showed a difference in the way the force interacted with people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, particularly those who were from black heritage communities.
Crew said: “To make real change we need to work together, we need to be accountable and by admitting the truth we can start to make progress.”
However, the Avon and Somerset force’s Police Federation, which represents officers, has objected to Crew’s statement.
The federation said it created “a false narrative” that could cultivate the impression that its officers were racist.
Chair Mark Loker said Crew’s comments had been shared internally via a vlog and needed data to back them up, otherwise they amounted to “virtue signalling”.
He added that “by our chief declaring Avon and Somerset as institutionally racist this will create a false narrative and actually drive a divide between our officers and the communities this is intended to assist.
Crew cited findings that showed people in the region were six times more likely to be stopped and searched if they were from black heritage. She added: “The evidence is undeniable – we are improving but it is not happening fast enough.
“This is about recognising the structural and institutional barriers that exist and which put people at a disadvantage in the way they interact with policing because of their race.”
Last year, the force apologised to an investigator who had previously been subjected to “toxic” racial abuse. The south Asian officer who wished to remain anonymous said he was mocked for his accent and left a guide book on how to speak English for foreigners by officers.
Other abuse suffered by the officer included his home and mobile telephone numbers being placed in strip clubs by a police constable in his team, leading to his family being forced to change their phone number after being phoned up repeatedly by men seeking sexual contacts.
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Last week at the CIPD’s Festival of Work conference at London Olympia, chief constable of the British Transport Police told delegates that she was determined to alter the culture of her force, to create a “hostile environment for predatory people and those who abuse their position of trust”. She said had held “uncomfortable” sessions with officers from ethnic minorities about the organisation’s culture and was determined to improve recruitment to enable a transformation in culture within the force.
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