A MAJOR study into the benefits of fast-tracking ethnic minority officers through the ranks ahead of white colleagues has been launched amid concerns at the lack of black and Asian police in Scottish forces.

The controversial research, which is to be presented to senior officers later this year, is to be used to put pressure on police chiefs to drive up the number of ethnic minority officers in Scotland.

As part of the study, being carried out by Daniel Onifade, a legal consultant and race campaigner, the positive experiences of affirmative action – also known as positive discrimination – adopted in countries such as the US, Canada and South Africa, will be examined.

News of the study comes just days before the Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland is due to publish its own review of the police and race relations. It was launched last year in response to the BBC’s devastating undercover documentary The Secret Policeman and is to be published on Friday.

Although the review is not expected to call for affirmative action, it is believed to reveal that – six years after the Macpherson Report into the death of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence in London shook the police service to the core – racism still exists in Scotland’s police. It is also expected to criticise the lack of opportunity for ethnic minority officers to progress up the ranks.

Both the CRE review and Onifade’s research are set to increase the pressure on chief police officers in Scotland to address growing concerns among race groups about the dearth of those with ethnic minority backgrounds in the force and their apparent lack of progression.

In April, a Sunday Herald investigation revealed that from a total force strength of 15,963 officers in Scotland, only 118 were recorded as being black or Asian.

The investigation also found that 107 of Scotland’s black and Asian officers were constables and none had a rank higher than superintendent.

It led to Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei of the Metropolitan Police calling for Holyrood to introduce a law change allowing positive discrimination to occur in the police. “Critics say it will lead to a public outcry, but it’s about police legitimacy,” Dizaei said.

The new study by Onifade is backed by Semper Scotland, a support group for black and ethnic minority police officers.

Onifade, whose 2002 research for the Scottish Executive found widespread racism within the Scottish Police Service, claimed there was a need for affirmative action to root out racism and bring more ethnic minorities to the police.

“It’s controversial, but let’s talk about it,” he said. “We have tried so many other options which have not worked; we’ve had open days, police committee groups, we’ve had the race equality councils involved and recruitment drives. The research shows that affirmative action has worked well in other places. Many other pieces of research have recommended that the policy goes ahead.”

Onifade said by adopting a policy of affirmative action, Scotland would be able to reverse the trend of black and ethnic minority officers leaving the police. Many officers, he said, had become disillusioned and had resigned from the force because of an absence of role models in senior ranks.

He added: “The middle management – the inspectors and chief inspectors – are the opinion leaders and attitude formers. They are the ones who can make policies work on the ground, but there are so few black and ethnic minority officers within these ranks.

“Affirmative action is not about getting a black person and just promoting them. It’s about getting people who are of the right calibre. It’s about the organisation winning.”

He said that through his research he hoped to “bring forward the debate” on affirmative action .

Robin Iffla, chairman of Semper Scotland, also called for an “open and honest debate” about affirmative action.

He said: “It is our desire to assist the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos), the Scottish Executive and other police bodies in looking at fresh ways to address the lack of black and ethnic minority recruits.”

Campaigners say the need for affirmative action in the police has been brought into sharp focus recently by a number of factors, including the perception that the police is a predominantly white organisation, hostile to ethnic minorities and riven with racism.

The screening of the BBC’s Secret Policeman programme, which showed recruits wearing Ku Klux Klan-type hoods, they said, reinforced the view.

Campaigners also say affirmative action may help address the need for better policing and intelligence gathering among ethnic minority groups and to allay the fears of Asians and Arabs whose communities are under increasing scrutiny because of the threat of Islamic terrorism.

The Scottish Police Federation, which represents 98% of police officers in Scotland, has said that although it is “fully supportive” of efforts to encourage minority groups to join the police, it opposed positive discrimination.

Nobody at Acpos was available for comment last night because of policing commitments to the G8 summit.

Paddy Tomkins, chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police has told the Sunday Herald that Acpos is “committed to encouraging people from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible to join the service”.

10 July 2005