Gavin Stephens, head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, has publicly dubbed policing in the UK as institutionally racist.
Speaking with The Guardian, Stephens, who was elected by his fellow chief contemporaries in March 2023, called for an overhaul and improvement of policing practices across the country, and said that leadership is essential in tackling the problem.
Police Scotland, the second biggest force in the UK, Avon and Somerset Police, and the British Transport Police have accepted that the matter applies to them, while the biggest three forces in England—the Met, West Midlands Police, and Greater Manchester Police all refused the claim.
“It’s a leadership responsibility for us to describe to them what it (institutional racism) means and what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that all police officers are racist,” Stephens said. “The way our policies, procedures, training have been designed and implemented for many years have not had the voices of Black people involved in the design, the implementation, of those practices. And as a consequence of that, we get disproportionate outcomes in places where there shouldn’t be disproportionate outcomes.”
He added: “The most helpful discussion for policing to have in the future is how we redesign the policies, the practices, the implementation, of policing to remove that discrimination.”
The news comes after a damning report published by Baroness Louise Casey, who reviewed the behavioural standards and culture in the Met Police, in March last year. Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the report had generated “anger, frustration and embarrassment”, but rebuffed the claims of “institutional” racism and misogyny.
Despite this, a report released last December found that Black Londoners were around 3.3 times more likely to be stopped in the capital than white counterparts, and were 7 times more likely to be stopped and searched if police suspected knives or dangerous blades were present.
As per the government’s own findings, Black communities remain disproportionately impacted by stop and search practices, and also by the use of Tasers which can often prove fatal.
