Insitutional racism

Sat 16 Jul 2005

Police forces accused of not doing enough to recruit ethnic officers

JUDE SHEERIN

SCOTLAND'S police forces have failed to recruit sufficient additional officers from ethnic minorities, according to an independent review on how to improve race relations.

The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) found that despite "considerable efforts" by Scots police forces, not enough ethnic minority officers have been recruited. Of the nearly 16,000 police, only 118 are non-white officers (0.7 per cent), mainly ranked constable, according to Semper Scotland, a support group for ethnic minority police.

The CRE report said police ranks should be more representative of the communities they serve - ethnic minority groups make up 2.01 per cent of the population. More must be done also to tackle the perception among ethnic minority communities that racism is rife in the police, it said.

The CRE made 67 recommendations to be implemented by Scotland's eight forces over the next six months. The review was sparked by a BBC documentary, The Secret Policemen, which exposed racism within Greater Manchester Police. Five officers quit in disgrace after covert filming by a reporter posing as a trainee officer was broadcast in October 2003.

The race watchdog said Scotland's forces were ahead of counterparts south of the Border in dealing with race relations, but needed to "pick up the pace". Law at Work, the company that compiled the report, found many young, non-white people did not want to join the police because of fears about racism.

Among the recommendations made was the setting up of a national Scottish recruitment process.

Trevor Phillips, the CRE chair, said the picture in Scotland was different to that in England and Wales, where the race watchdog had found "ice at the heart" of the police service. Mr Phillips, who was in Edinburgh for the report's publication, said: "Some of what is happening in Scotland will provide practical leadership for the rest of Great Britain.

"Scotland's police forces should be commended for the progress they are making on race equality. However, now is not the time to lapse into complacency. As the review makes clear, there's still some way to go before policies and strategies deliver race equality on the ground."

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