(POP0022)

Written evidence submitted by Lewis Rees Melville, Katie Taylor, Alex Woodhead, Emma Walker, Thomas Jones, Jack Firmstone, Natalie Higgs, Amelia Winterbottom, Abbie McArdle (POP0022)

 

 

Policing Priorities Report:

1. The Politics Lab Group for Edge Hill University conducted a survey, responses predominantly representing young people from the North-West region of the UK, aimed at people between the ages of 16-30, as well as multiple interviews, in order to address the call for evidence regarding policing priorities. The survey garnered 118 responses addressing specific issues regarding; perceived perceptions of priorities of the Police Force, the restoration of trust in local and wider communities across the UK (special attention concerning the former London Metropolitan Commissioner Cressida Dick), the issue of the accountability of the Police Force, and the decrease/increase of trust in the Police force after an interaction with them.

 

2. This report presents our findings, with aims to highlight young people's perceptions and opinions on the current police force and what they can do to improve, trust, accountability, and respect to the UK’s modern Police Force.

 

Summarisation:

3. To summarise the report, respondents have given a keen insight into the thoughts and opinions of young people regarding the UK’s policing priorities. Results found that young people believe the police force should put more emphasis on tackling domestic and sexual abuse. This is especially the case regarding police officers themselves. Cases of police malpractice and committing domestic and sexual crimes towards women have left a worrying mistrust in the present UK police force, as accountability for said police officers have been put into question, leaving much to be desired in terms of stricter punishment. 70.3% of respondents state that they do not believe the police force are held sufficiently accountable for breaches of the law and of internal malpractice.

4. The report also tackles other issues such as misogyny in the workplace, knife crime, and a brief mention of whether the police force should receive more or less funding. A policing student suggested in an interview that more funding was required to bring more extensive training to tackle societal issues, in relation to local community and creating a more in-depth understanding of the issues revolving around domestic abuse.

 

 

 

 

The Optics of Policing Priorities:

5. Displayed in Appendix 1 and 2, shows the results from our survey concerning respondents' opinions on the perceived priorities of the police force, contrasted further below with what respondent’s believe should be the focus of the police force. Our survey suggests that Antisocial Behaviour, Law & Order, and protecting the Kings Peace. However, though Antisocial Behaviour appeared to be perceived main focus of the police force, Respondent’s stated that ‘Protecting Local Communities’, ‘Domestic Violence and Abuse’, and ‘Sexual Abuse’ should in fact be the main focuses of the Police Force, with a much-reduced focus on tackling ‘Antisocial Behaviour’, compared with the first set of results. These are important results to reflect upon whilst reviewing the rest of the report.

 

Accountability in the Police Force:

6. Through the survey, young people have shared their opinions on the disciplinary measures that need to be taken to improve trust in the police force with the wider community. Certain areas of improvement include:

         Transparency, honesty, and openness

         Current accountability and punishments, legal action if necessary

         Sensitivity training

         Acknowledging previous incidences of Racism and Misogyny

         Tougher Screening for new recruits,

         Immediate action to take place after an enquiry

         Educational Awareness

         Community outreach programs - sanctuaries for materially deprived communities

         Politically neutral

         Increase representation with hiring of more women and POC

7. This is understandably a lot to digest, however, it is important to acknowledge the dissatisfaction the wider public has towards the current state of the police force. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (ICCP) is the current organisation in place to tackle and acknowledge such complaints and inquiries, however, it’s effectiveness in implementing the correct measure of punishment and accountability is something that should be perpetually put into question.

8. Take the case of Adnan Arib, a Metropolitan Police officer who was jailed for two years after being found to have used his position to try to initiate sexual relationships with two vulnerable teenagers. (The Guardian, 2022) According to the Sentencing Council, which specifies sentencing duration of such crimes, suggests that inciting in such acts can garner a sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment. On top of using confidential phone records to engage in communications with a minor. The question is, was the two years of jail time the adequate punishment befitting such a crime. Further, The Police Accountability Document wrote up for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (Rob Mawby, Alan Wright, 2005) states that all police officers “are subordinated to the law and to the law alone”. This would suggest that Adnan Arib should have received a harsher sentence for his crimes. The optics of a police officer receiving a lesser sentence than that which is due, reduces public trust in the police force.  The victim's mother stated that she now has “a lack of trust in the UK authorities because he’s a policeman”. Pair that with the survey responses which states that 73.6% of young people believes that the Police force does not hold itself accountable and implements that correct disciplinary measures. One specific participant stated, “treated all individuals equally when they have committed crimes, instead of letting some people off and discipling others”. Overall, this is clearly an area that requires improvement within the ICCP and Police Force in order to restore trust in the wider community, since how can that public have trust in the Police if they aren’t held to the same accountability as themselves.

 

The Optics of the police force in relation to social media and in-person interactions:

9. Scrutiny by the media plays an informal but influential part in the civilian oversight of the British police. The tradition of investigative journalism in the British media has acted as a watchdog on the police and other public bodies. In 2003 an undercover documentary entitled The Secret Policeman provided a recent illustration of the power of the media. It focused on racial discrimination within the police service and asked questions about accountability at both the individual and the organisational level. Resulting in:

 

10. All forces undertook to assess their selection procedures. Pressure Groups/NGOs: informal scrutiny of police behaviour and their use of statutory powers is also catered for by several monitoring bodies. These groups often act as lobbyists and seek to draw attention to perceived malpractice, through the media and through elected representatives. These include Inquest and Liberty; the latter was formerly known as the National Council for Civil Liberties and has a long history of concern for civil liberties.

11.Furthermore, the importance of the media in shaping the perception of different demographics can be seen by the fact that the College of Policing website offers a broad amount of information in order to help officers deal with the media in a professional way. Whilst this can be seen in a negative way as it is a clear sign that police actions are reflective of what is said in the media, it also highlights that the police force are aware of the importance of positive media coverage and are taking steps to ensure that officers can engage with the media in a constructive way that does not lead to negative coverage of police actions and ensures that the credibility of the police is made more secure in the eyes of the public. It also ensures that the police forces are held to account, and they are aware that their actions are under constant public scrutiny.

12. Even more, in a report written following a request by then Home Secretary Theresa May it is indicated that there is a professional relationship between the media and the police, and it is, leaks made by close friends and family of officers that leads to negative coverage that damages police credibility. However, the report also makes it clear that at the time, not enough had been done in order to ensure that critical or confidential information was not leaked by officers to the media, and the report advises that there needed to be more clarity regarding what is appropriate to be discussed with the media. The report also highlights that the relationship between police and media is impacted and made more difficult, by the widespread use of social media, which is seen as an easy opening for accidental leaks that lead to negative media coverage. The report indicates a desire to better coordinate the relationship between the police and the media and highlights how the HMIC recognises the importance of a balanced and controlled relationship in order to ensure that police forces are able to operate effectively but are also able to be held to account. This indicates an aim to create a modern and open police force.

13. Continuing, there is a clear indication that police guidelines on dealing with the media has created distrust between media outlets and the police. An example of this is an article by BBC news which highlights that many members of the ‘Society of Editors’ are uncomfortable with new police guidelines with regard to media and their relationship with police, seeing it as an attempt to blame the media for corruption and shift the blame from the police forces.  It is a clear example of the type of media that is creating a negative perception of the reliability of police forces to act in a professional way and is what turns parts of the population such as youth away from the police force. This gives the impression that the police are seeking to undermine the ability of the media to be used to hold police forces to account.

14. The Guardian highlights that there is a significant amount of racism and misogyny among officers that continues to plague the Metropolitan police force. News reports such as these are critical in understanding how trust in the police force is being damaged as they continue to ace pressure regarding the behaviour and attitudes that it is willing to overlook. This can be seen in headlines such as the “Casey report uncovers internal failings that let racist, corrupt and misogynist officers remain in their jobs”. This highlights the importance of the media in holding police forces such as the Metropolitan Police to account and making the public aware of the severe failings of the police.

15. As part of our report, we distributed a survey regarding different aspects of the police force which received 118 responses. The survey was mostly focused on the views of young people aged between sixteen and 30, however there is also a significant proportion of people who are above the age of 30. One of the aspects covered in the survey was media coverage of the police force. One of the questions asked on the survey regarded how people accessed media related to the police force. Out of the options mainstream media, social media, both mainstream and social media or neither, we found that the majority of those surveyed relied on both the mainstream and social media to get news on police activities with 42 people using both. The second largest group of those that were surveyed was getting information only from social media with 40 people using this method. This means that only 20 of those surveyed used mainstream media for information on the police and a further 16 did not use any media to gain information on police. This indicates there is a significantly larger amount of information concerning the police force coming from social media outlets whilst the mainstream media is significantly less relevant to young people. It also highlights that a significant minority of those surveyed had no news about the police force and did not appear to show any interest in media regarding the police.

16. Continuing, a second question asked whether the media that the people surveyed had accessed was either a positive, negative or neutral overview of the police force. The survey found that a significant majority of the respondents found the media coverage of the police force was mostly negative. This was the view of 73 of the 118 surveyed. On the other hand, 29 of those surveyed, found the media to be neutral to the police whilst only 14 saw the media coverage of police as positive. This indicates that the perception of the police in the media is rather bleak and does not ensure public confidence in the ability of the police to behave in an ethical way. It also highlights that young people are increasingly aware of police failings in dealing with issues such as the previously stated corruption, racism and misogyny. What is also interesting is that the perception of the media coverage of police, is seen as mainly negative by those who get their news from both social media and the mainstream media as 34 of the 73 respondents who said that it was negative used both news outlets to get information.

17.  It is no surprise that the majority of those who read media coverage of the police force saw their view of the police become more negative with a very small minority continuing to see the police force in a positive light.

18. Overall, the police perception on social media has become a significant area that police should focus on as significantly more young people are using social media outlets to get information and news. It is clear based on the survey that the police are failing to get a good perception of their actions on social media, since the majority of those that use social media as their main source of information, or in concert with mainstream media tend to be exposed to a more negative view of the police that portrays them as corrupt, racist and misogynistic in their practices.

Funding for the Police:

19. Survey results in terms of funding:

 

 

20. It is clear that more funding is an issue that people are finding important. In the “is there anything you wish to add box”, there is a response relating to funding which states, “the police can't do their job without the backing and funding they need from governments and local communities”, suggesting that there is a desperate need for increased funding for the police to fulfil the needs of not only the community, but the nation. Without this, they are lacking in resources to sufficiently fulfil their roles and restore confidence in residents and keep the crime levels down.

 

Knife Crime:

21. In order to cover all the current issues facing the Police Force, we also asked young people about what they believe to be the best way the police force should approach and tackle the issue of Knife and Gun Crime in the UK. Throughout the 118 responses we received, in order of most popular to least popular responses:

 

-          Positive approaches to local communities and young people through education

-          Harsher Sentences for those in position of a knife or gun

-          More Officers patrolling the streets

-          Increasing Stop and Search measures

-          Increased funding

-          Legal access, awareness, and support for impoverished Communities

-          Knife Bins/ Hand-ins

-          Crackdown on Gang Crime

-          Help from ex-offenders

 

22. Specific responses suggest:

“It's a bigger problem that involves tackling it through the use of funds in other areas such youth activities and social prevention. Policing won't solve knife crime alone”

“Anonymous Knife swaps, promoting more funding into lower socioeconomic communities e.g., Local youth centres, events, schooling etc.”

“Young police mentor delivering education in schools, more local activities for children and for disadvantaged groups providing more accessible opportunities as a way out of crime for people to engage with. All preventative work. If this is in place alongside punitive measures stands a better success. Providing whistleblowing scheme so people can anonymously report people in possession of gun and knife, and this could be monitored for any themes or areas so that extra policing can be put in”

“Zero tolerance, regular knife and gun amnesty, education, tackling gang and drug issues. Maybe legalising all drugs in order to move users away from dealers and the crime that can be a result of dealers doling out punishments for non-payment of drug debts by using other users to carry out these crimes leaving drug dealers hands clean.”

 

23. These responses cover the wider range of concerns surrounding the issues of Knife and Gun Crime, addressing such cultures of young people not being able to come forward to report crimes and are not educated sufficiently enough on the issues. An interesting point brought up however is the response that talks about Anonymous Knife Swaps. This is a response that the Leicestershire Police force are already Implementing.

Operation Sceptre:

24. Operation Sceptre is an attempt by the Leicestershire Police Force to address these issues surrounding Knife Crime. Implementing educational and enforcement reform to young people. Operation Sceptre appears to be an effective way at tackling the issue of Knife Crime without indiscriminately increasing Policing powers and harshening Sentences, an attempt at reaching out the community.

 

25. Operation Sceptre also hosted more than “7500 secondary school pupils during a national week of action targeting knife crime” and confiscated 329 knifes off the streets for good. A joint operation was conducted to investigate the issue of young people buying knifes from shops without being asked for I.D. 11 out of 47 shop workers failed to question the young person in question on their age. This is an enlightening conclusion to the many issues surrounding Knife crime, that young people currently aren’t being questioned enough when attempting to purchase knives on a day-to-day basis.

 

26. It is clear that, whilst the optics of the police force have shown to be ineffective in some areas at addressing such concerns, real initiatives and operations are currently taking place to address these issues, through more nuanced approaches to involving themselves in their local communities. If Operation Sceptre could be replicated and implemented to each region of the UK, we could see an increase in awareness and a deeper understanding of the issue surrounding Knife crime.

 

Metropolitan Commissioner:

27. Multiple scandals inside the MET police such as the murder of Sarah Everard by an off-duty police officer, and the treatment of women by the MET at protest around the murder of Sarah Everard. A report based on the findings by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) into the toxic workplace inside the MET police mainly centred on officers of Charing Cross Police station which found that misogynistic and homophobic culture had developed alongside the acceptance of sexual assault and bullying amongst officers. The problems within the MET in terms of misogyny and a toxic workplace led to the resignation of MET Commissioner Dicks (Which was encouraged by London Mayor Sadiq Khan). The problem of accountability and problems with the MET can be seen as not shifting with recent reports such as the interim Casey report which states that “since 2013 20% (1,809) of the officers and staff with any misconduct case against them were involved in more than one misconduct case. Most of these individuals (1,263) were involved in two separate misconduct cases in the period” (Casey Interim Report, 2022) this points to the concept that the MET is lacking the ability to discipline officers of misconduct. The survey conducted by ourselves pointed that this would be key for Sir Mark Rowley to focus on bringing a more robust discipline procedure such as with the quotes

28. These quotes show that for the Sir Mark Rowley to regain trust amongst younger people since they believe that the current procedure is inadequate.

29. In terms of other ways in which the new commissioner could improve their relationship amongst its community would the recruitment of more members into the Met Police an opinion that echoed in responses in our survey such as

30. These quotes show that young people tend to view the recruitment of a more diverse community to increase trust and this proposal was voiced by the London Mayor Sadiq Khan in his 2021 campaign manifesto “I will continue to push hard so that the police reflect our city’s diversity by improving the recruitment, retention and promotion of officers from all of London’s diverse communities” so with Mayor of London already pushing for measure such as this more emphasis should be paid to recruitment this alongside more screening for potential bad actors with records of misconduct in terms of abuse of a racial and sexual nature. Screening was again key takeaway from the survey with quite a few respondents replying to survey with responses such as

31. Accountability seems to be key to this response in order regain trust in the MET both Sadiq Khan and the Sir Mark Rowley have stated their support for measures as stated above but without actual steps being taken to implement these policies words are simply not enough actions must be taken.

 

Thoughts from Medical Professionals:

32. Another set of interviews that were conducted were medical professionals aged 21-27, who wish to remain anonymous, on their thoughts of the police when working in a professional setting. From the 2 interviewees, they both account situations within work and placement, where the police engaged in a situation within a medical setting. When asked if the police provided sufficient support in the situation, one response mentioned they thought the police “seemed to be helpful and involved”. The other respondent mentioned that they were not too sure on whether they did enough.

33. Another question that was asked was whether their opinions of the police change when they’re working compared to socialising. One respondent stated that their thoughts do not change, mentioning the little trust they have, and they are "always suspicious of them”. The other respondent said they see them as an authoritative figure when outside the workplace compared to seeing them “more on a level with me” when working.

34. Another question that was asked was “what do you think is the police’s priority in supporting young people?”, the respondents said that the police are “Trying to be 'sound' with the bad kids” and “Providing a level of safety and protection to young people and trying to prevent young people from becoming offenders whilst trying to deal with incidences where harm has been caused. When followed up with “do you think the police have the interests of people’s health first?”, the respondents said they were unsure about the police’s priorities towards young people’s health.

35. Finally, when asked “what do you think the police can do to support the public sector?”, one respondent said that “if the police were more knowledgeable about mental health issues as certain people may commit crimes or exhibit riskier behaviour due to poor mental health and it is important that this is understood so that they can be directed to appropriate services if required.”, the other respondent stated that they do not know how the police could support the public sector better.

36. The conclusions from these questions highlight the lack of communication within the police and medical professionals. Although they may provide help within situations, in the eyes of some medical students and workers, they do not believe that the police have the interests of young people’s health as a priority. With the medical professionals highlighting the issue of mental health, it shows that there is more that can be done to support young people’s mental health to stop people committing crimes or “exhibit riskier behaviour due to poor mental health”. It is concerning that young medical professionals cannot clearly state that the police do enough to support young people’s health.

 

Survey results regarding gender:

37. It is important to also highlight the differences of perceptions and opinions of each gender in order to investigate whether the respondents gender played a specific role in increase/decrease of trust in the police force, following an interaction with a Police Officer.

 

Total Positive Responses: 20 (17%)

Total Negative Responses: 98 (83%)

 

 

Genders:

 

 

 

Positive responses:

 

 

Negative responses:

 

38. We can gather from this that in terms of gender, it is a generally negative response. There is a trend of more positive and negative response Males and Females, and therefore it is uncertain to say that one gender is particularly drawn towards having a positive or negative outlook. There is a lot more negative perspectives from women, however there are also more positive perspectives too – not quite within with the same gap though. In terms of Non-Binary and ‘Prefer not to say’ submissions, there isn’t enough data to make an accurate representation of their views.

 

 

Misogyny in the Workplace:

 

39. In 2021, Ex police constable Simon Hawxwell was banned for life from serving as a police officer after being found guilty of gross misconduct. He was found to have targeted a female colleague on a number of separate occasions, including holding a bladed pair of scissors up to her, choking her, and using sexist, derogatory language towards her. Hawxwell’s defence was that he had a “dark sense of humour” and he had considered the acts and comments to be “banter”.

 

40. There are similarities between the Hawxwell case and an ongoing investigation involving police officers sending “discriminatory, derogatory, or pornographic” messages and images in a group WhatsApp chat. The Police Watchdog have been prompted to launch an enquiry under Section 127 of the Communication Acts, as the messages were of a grossly offensive nature (Mercer, D. 2022). Further to this, two police officers were charged and sentenced in 2021 for taking photos of two murdered sisters at a crime scene, and then circulating the pictures on social media. (ITV News, 2022)

 

41. The number of cases regarding the police that have come to light suggest there may be a “culture” of misogyny within the police force that is deeply engrained. An investigation into Charing Cross Police Station by the IOPC found many of the accusations to be true. (IOPC, 2022)

 

42. The findings of these reports suggest that there is no true accountability within the police force for misogynistic behaviours, and the Charing Cross report highlighted the police force as having a culture of “toxic masculinity” and that there are “multiple concerning behavioural themes about attitude and behaviour”. It found that “banter” was used to excuse oppressive, sexist and offensive behaviours. The report suggested that the “underlying culture allowed conduct issues to permeate, and behavioural problems went unchallenged”. It also detailed other contributing factors including the nature of the work, the shift patterns, isolation, and a lack of proper supervision.

43. In 2015, the police force had to apologise and pay large sums of monetary compensation to women who had been tricked and abused by undercover police officers. The men in question had entered into abusive relationships with the women and abused their position of power. Indeed, Mark Kennedy had been in a relationship with three of the women who brought legal action. (Evans, R. 2015).

 

44. Should the police have made changes and realised the misogynistic culture in 2015 when they had to make that apology? In the survey conducted, a lot of references were made to the misogyny and sexism within the police force:

         “Be more transparent with the dealings of misogyny and racism within the police”

         “Punish officers for being misogynistic – be much stricter!”

         “Harsher punishments for definite”

         “Make examples of offenders within the police force and be transparent about how they are dealt with”.

         “Less corrupt police officers”

         “Tell the truth!”

 

45. With that in mind, it is important to consider how a culture of misogyny could be tackled (Wistrich, 2022. Highlighted, there is a growing awareness of “police perpetuated abuse” and a distinct “unwillingness of the courts” to hold the Crown Prosecution Service accountable. Therefore, perhaps sentences for the police should be harsher, and they should be held to a high level of accountability than the average person (Wistrich, H. 2022).

 

46. The recommendations laid out in the Hotton report state:

         Should work to ensure that the culture of bullying and harassment is not more prevalent in other forces and stations

         Those responsible for investigating allegations against the police should be entirely independent and detached from the force being investigated

         Easily trackable data to log and highlight reports of abuse

         Present and enforce a zero-tolerance stance on harassment and bullying of all forms

         With regards to banter, provide intensive training and guidance including code of ethics

         Ensure all police know the same rules apply both on and off social media, and in their private lives.

         Make it known that “laddish banter” in unacceptable, inappropriate, and never an excuse.

         Review all policy to make sure it covers “toxic masculinity”

 

47. It is important to highlight that not all police officers were guilty of harassment, some were simply unable to speak up for fear of being harassed further. It is therefore imperative that the issues regarding proper reporting and investigation are addressed as a matter of priority. In addition, appropriate training and an ensuring all policies are updated to include guidance and definitions on misogynistic behaviours and actions. All reports of abuse should be investigated independently, and all data relating to the number of reports and their outcomes should be made accessible to the public.

 

General Areas of improvement for the Police, Commissioner campaigns and Course representative Interview commentary:

48. In response to the call for evidence, particularly regarding the new Commissioner and trust in the police, we believe it is important to understand ways that the Police can improve. We believe this is important to note not only in practice but also to improve the level of trust that the public has in today’s force. We believed that examining commissioner campaigns and asking relevant questions to students was the best way to examine this.

49. We took particular note of our local area, Lancashire, when researching commissioners. Our incumbent Commissioner for police and crime is Andrew Snowden. Snowden believes that there should be greater focus on investing in the force, to have 20,000 more officers on the streets (Lancashire Conservatives, n.d.). He believes this will increase trust in the police, by making officers more accessible. However, our survey respondents disagree. A significant portion of our respondents, 72.27%, said that they do not believe in the police. However, some respondents said that they believe trust can be improved by increasing police presence. Therefore, showing that Snowden’s aspiration has had mixed responses, with a lot of respondents stating that the police need to change their focus away from antisocial behaviour, which 56.3% of respondents said they perceived as the biggest priority for the current force.

50. A new commissioner, for any area, therefore, would need to help improve this trust but in the right way. According to our respondents, this would involve focussing on victim-based crimes, listening to the needs of local communities, and interacting with these communities, especially those who are disadvantaged or minority groups.

51. Furthermore, we interviewed an Edge Hill University student who represents students on their course to gain further insight. They suggested that to increase police trust within the community that instead of the police being individuals to fear and avoid, they need to become more trustworthy by investigating white collar crime further. They suggested this because within media, crime within communities is highlighted far more than white collar crimes, leading to the communities’ police are meant to represent feeling targeted. The representative also commented that they too believe Antisocial Behaviour is the police’s main focus, however that another benefit of investigating white collar crime, such as tax evasion, will help communities feel more trusting as this will decrease negative impacts to their economy. Our representative also discussed the hypocrisy within the justice system, as seen in numerous police scandals, and that this would aid trust of the police within the public, as accountability would be taken if the justice system was less hypocritical.

52. Based on our representative’s insight, we believe it is imperative to note how the police can come across to the public as disingenuous. This comment coupled with the fact the majority of our survey respondents do not believe in the police, shows that there is a lot of ground to cover when discussing police priorities and what a new commissioner would need to bring to the role. This may involve dissolving perceived biases and tackling crimes that are often let off lightly in the eyes of our respondents, such as domestic violence and sex abuse. To do this, a commissioner would need to involve themselves within community issues, and not just simply throw money at the problem. We believe this would generate a more trustworthy and safe police force that the public believe they can access without fear of harm or prejudice.

October 2022

 

 

 

 

 

Appendices:

1.

Forms response chart. Question title: What, in your opinion, appears to be the main focus of the current Police Force?. Number of responses: 118 responses.

 

2.

Forms response chart. Question title: What, in your opinion, should the main focus of the current Police Force? . Number of responses: 118 responses.

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