Written evidence submitted by the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) (MPR0039)

“Very little progress has been made in regards to positively impacting on the BAME policing picture during the last twenty years. This situation is due to a combination of factors that include:

Many Chief Constables not prioritising the agenda.
Chief Officers not being held accountable for the lack of progress.
Institutional racism still being in existence, albeit in a less open format as has been the case historically.

The only way to change the current narrative positively, is to enforce a national directive, which holds all Chief Constables to account for ensuring progress is being achieved and lessons are being learnt where appropriate. Desirable outcomes will only be achieved when such a framework is established.

Inspector Mustafa Mohammed QPM

President of the National Association of Muslim Police

1. Introduction

1.1 NAMP was established in 2006 and currently has approximately 3000 members across England & Wales and Police Scotland. The membership includes Police Officers, PCSOs, civilian support staff and Special constables. The NAMP aims to promote faith/race relations and equality of opportunity.

1.2 It has 6 main objectives it delivers against: Recruitment, Retention,Progression, disproportionality within misconduct/grievances, Hate crime/incidents (Islamaphobia) and improving trust & Confidence within communities.

2. Executive Summary

2.1 Since the 2009 Macpherson report and the recent 2016 HASC inquiry into Police diversity, we have seen little change/progress in the BAME picture which still remains gloomy and very disappointing. The current picture shows that BAME are under- represented in recruitment and progression but over represented in retention, misconduct and grievances. A situation which has not coincidentally fallen in that manner, like a roll of a dice, but can only be attributed to the shortcomings of the leadership within the Police service.

2.2 The definition of Institutional racism as defined by Macpherson states “it can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amounts to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance and thoughtlessness”

Today we are still seeing BAME experiencing procedural injustices, inequality of opportunity, disproportionality in misconduct procedures/stop & search/retention rates and lack of BAME progression. It matters not that individuals do not hold racial intentions, the current gloomy BAME picture clearly falls within the above definition and so NAMP determine that Institutional racism still exists in today’s modern British police. The so called “Unconscious bias” training is a tool used by many forces to identify/eliminate bias but this appears to have had little impact upon the above mentioned outcomes.

2.3 Positive Action initiatives have not brought about consistent desired results within recruitment drives, due to the varied/inconsistent approach within forces and the reluctance to make RACE a priority over other protected characteristics, despite having a BAME demography. At the current rate of recruitment it means it will take at least two decades before the service reaches 14% BAME representation.

2.4 Positive action initiatives are purely restricted to recruitment campaigns with little or no focus on BAME progression or development. Whilst white females in the service have enjoyed notable success in progression/representation over time, their black & Asian counter-parts are the worst affected as the most under-represented group. This clearly demonstrates that there is strong support within the service for white females but the same cannot be said for BAME females. A situation that can be deemed to be institutional racism.

2.5 BAME progression can only be described as painfully slow, with the largest proportion being represented at the lower ranks ranging from 4.7% at Sergeant Ranks to 2.6% at Chief Officer Ranks. This bleak picture has existed within the service for far too long and even recent Direct Entry processes ran by the College of Policing for Inspectors, have resulted in 0% of BAME being successful. This is an unacceptable position that cannot continue and requires robust, radical and prompt intervention.

2.6 The Misconduct/grievances world continues to be the greatest concern with data showing BAME disproportionality in discipline procedures and also significant under- representation of BAME within such departments. This area of business is arguably one that has the greatest subjectivity in decision making, with sole power given to the Appropriate Authority (One individual), who makes critical decisions without any external accountability or scrutiny. There is reluctance by forces to change this approach and introduce independency, transparency and scrutiny in order to address their own very insular practices.

2.7 Retention rates also continue to show that BAME are disproportionately represented and are the largest group leaving the Police service. This clearly is counterproductive to the effort/investment being delivered in recruitment. The police service are too preoccupied with recruitment figures and have lost sight of their retention issues indicating there is a clear disconnect between both strategies.

2.8 BAME community trust and confidence still remains low compared to the wider groups. Local satisfaction community surveys show lower % of confidence levels amongst BAME communities. According to Home Office report published in March 2017, Black individuals were 9 times more likely to be stop searched compared to their counter parts, whilst Asians were nearly 3 times more likely to be stopped. This must be recognised to have a significant adverse impact on Trust & confidence in our Police service and threatens the very consent we require to police our communities.

2.9 We have seen a rise in Anti Muslim hate crime/incidents across various parts of the country. The Police service has drawn criticism about the manner victims have been let down through poor recording of incidents and dismissive police attitudes. This coupled with the Counter- terrorism narrative that often describes the Police/Muslim community relationship, leaves trust & confidence at very low levels within the Police service.

2. The 2016 HASC in Police diversity stated “that further scope exists within positive action provisions and there is some way to go before forces could say that all options have been exhausted”.

Two years on we experience/ witness a narrative where some Chief Constables are reluctant to prioritise RACE due to the backlash from other protected characteristics therefore rendering Positive actions for BAME, ineffective. It is with this in mind that the NAMP now believe that Positive action provisions will not ever achieve the desired results and therefore feel that it is now time to have the real and serious discussion about “Positive discrimination”.

3.0 The extent of progress that has been made to ensure that Police forces reflects the ethnic diversity of their communities:

3.1 Recruitment

On the whole the picture is painfully slow and Positive action initiatives have yielded differing results in forces across England & Wales. The overall picture since 2009 recruitment of BAME has shown very slow progress moving from 4.4% to 6.6% in 2018, an increase of 2.2%.

See figure below:

At this rate it is estimated that it will 2052 before Police forces reach the 14% BAME current population. According to research carried out by Leeds University in 2010, the projected BAME population for England & Wales will be one fifth of the overall population at approximately 20% by 2051.

3.3 This approach has enabled these forces to narrow their BAME gap against their respective BAME communities. Forces such as Leicestershire Constabulary where within Leicester city, the minority communities are now the majority and despite this, their initial recruitment campaigns did not make Race a priority and so early campaigns did not yield satisfactory results for BAME. Later this was recognised and amended, subsequently giving some improved BAME results. These missed opportunities clearly have an adverse impact upon overall figures and maximising results

3.4 The whole approach to the use of Positive action is varied, inconsistent and often ineffective. Human Resources departments, who are responsible for delivering such initiatives, often have poor BAME representation. This results in a lack of cultural competence that is essential in effectively/meaningfully supporting BAME candidates, as opposed to just running selection processes without much focus on people.

4.0 Progression

4.1 Progression is a critical area for BAME and time after time we continue to see pictures of newly promoted individuals which lack visible BAME. According to the latest figures, majority of the BAME representation is at the lowest rank of Sergeant and the poorest representation being at the highest Chief Officer ranks. See figure below:

4.2 Whilst forces have been preoccupied with recruitment, there has been very little investment in BAME progression. The current data for officer ranks shows how far we are away from the desired 14% target of our communities. Not only are BAME officers concentrated at the lower ranks, but they are also hugely under-represented within specialist departments such as Professional Standards, Surveillance units, Traffic, Learning & development etc. This picture has remained pretty much unchanged over the previous decades.

4.4 There clearly begs questions as how and why the white female group has done so well but BAME females have not. The notable difference at the rank of Chief Officer Ranks is key to this debate, where we see nearly 27% white females compared to 2.6% for BAME. The inference drawn from this may suggest that the Police service is more inclined towards supporting white females over BAME females and therefore potentially be deemed to be institutionally racist.

4.5 Adverse impact analysis of promotion processes has shown, that the greatest attrition for BAME, is at the first stage where they require line manager support. Subsequently there are not enough BAME numbers entering into promotion processes. This directly impacts negatively upon final success figures for BAME. Also the design of the process is carried out by the substantive ranks, where often there is a lack of diversity, especially BAME. Therefore the design lacks the test for diversity/cultural competence which are essential to operational policing of diverse communities. The promotion process involves interviewers, assessors, validators and design authorities who in the main are non-representative of BAME. This has traditionally been the approach used by many forces and tends to produce “a cloning of leadership” where difference is not valued.

4.6 Forces such as WMP and GMP recognised the weakness/gaps of the traditional processes and have moved onto a less subjective assessment centre based approach which emulates the recruitment process set by the College of Policing. The Assessment centre approach minimises subjectivity, procedural injustices and increases trust. Subsequently these forces have recently seen some notable success in BAME promotions figures in comparison to other forces who are still operating with outdated processes.

4.7 Retention figures again paint a bleak picture of BAME over-representation which in effect undermines the effort/investment made at the front end. Exit interviews are virtually non–existence with no corporate memory to capture any learning. NAMP has received feedback that highlights many reasons for leaving that vary from discipline matters, barriers to accepting difference, not feeling part of the police family, procedural injustices, lack of opportunity and unfairness.

4.8 Misconduct/discipline area seems to remain the greatest area for concern with research (Manchester University 2012 misconduct & IPCC report 2013) clearly showing that BAME are disproportionately represented in discipline procedures. Despite this, forces have done very little to address the findings and most Professional Standards departments seriously lack BAME representation.

The table shown in Appendix A shows BAME dismissal rates per force and some key facts:

City of London Police have the highest BAME dismissal rate at 44%
Metropolitan Police at 34%
BTP at 19%
Leicestershire at 14.7%
GMP at 14.1%
Warwickshire Police at 13.9%

5.1 Stop & Search figures still after 20 years on since the Macpherson report, show disproportionality for BAME with Black people 8 times more likely to be stopped compared to their white counter part. Asian people are two times more likely.

The Home Office data below shows the degree of disproportionality:

Figure 4.7 Likelihood1 of being stopped and searched2 by self-defined ethnic group, compared with those from White ethnic groups, England and Wales3, year ending March 2018 compared with 2017

Ethnic group

5.2 The so called “intelligence led” stop & search was designed as a preventative tool with strong government support but the resulting BAME disproportionality totally undermines public confidence and the reality for BAME is on the whole a negative one. Often intelligence led means descriptions of offenders that are so broad that can fit 9 out 10 people from a particular background and so we see innocent people being stopped etc. This is a policing tactic that requires greater community support and “buy in” in order for the measure to be effective and have community confidence it was initially intended to have. There also remains the question of legality and proportionality when such stops are carried out and Forces have to audit and eliminate unlawful stops and ensure proportionality through greater independent/community scrutiny particularly by involving the disaffected community.

5.3 In recent times we have seen a sharp increase in Hate Crime specifically “Islamaphobia”.

The below table from Tell MAMA show the extent and the targeted group:

5.4 The Muslim community also strongly feel that they are not been given the service they deserve and the perception that Police are dismissive of their report. This narrative undermines the trust levels within the Police. The accurate recording of matters are still not consistent, with some forces having a clear standalone category for faith related crimes/incidents whilst others record all such matters under Race hate. This clearly distorts the accuracy of the types of hate crime that are taking place and diminishes the police response to address them, as they are not classed as a high category “threat or risk”. The recent “Punish a Muslim letter” caused genuine concerns and fear amongst the Muslim community with parents frightened to take their kids to school or go outside but the national police response was so low key that nothing was seen/heard in the public domain from Hate Crime police leads.

There has also been instances of Islamaphobia reported/witnessed within the Police service. For example in West Yorkshire Police the Association of Muslim Police recently conducted a member survey and found that 39% of respondents had witnessed Islamaphobia and 32% had actually experienced it.

5.5 The quality of support and leadership provided by NPCC, COP and Home Office.

The NPCC lead for Race, Jon Boucher has been instrumental in promoting the race agenda and holding regular meetings with NAMP sitting as part of his think tank. This is work in progress and even Jon Boucher has had challenges amongst his peers around this agenda. There are few Chief Constables who are openly seen to support this agenda namely, Ian Hopkins, Gareth Wilson and Dave Thompson and the activities with their own forces reflect this. The NPCC has now developed a Diversity, Equality & Inclusion strategy with supporting toolkits to be embedded within the Police service. However, these are all optional and left at the discretion of each Chief to employ as they see fit. The COP has also sought to improve their BAME representation in the assessors group for police selection and recognises the changes it needs to bring into direct entry schemes to support positive action measures. The Home office has held Round table discussion on Race disparity but such discussions are few and far between with little or no future traction. The political agenda brings changes to Home Office appointments often resulting in lack of continuity and previous conversations/actions are lost, restarted and repeated which all adds up to critical lost time.

5.0 Conclusion

In 20 years the progress has been poor and the data supports this view. In 2016 HASC carried out an inquiry into Police Diversity and it concluded that for too long “lip service” has been paid to diversity within the Police and described the progress since Macpherson as “painfully slow and shameful”. The committee recommended a concerted action, prioritised across all forces, policing bodies and Government. The action since 2016 has been far from concerted and words of the HASC committee still ring true today. The BAME agenda clearly brings with it an apprehension/nervousness for the senior police leadership and so embracing and effectively delivering the BAME agenda, is proving more challenging. The backlash from the wider groups cannot be under-estimated and is a key inhibiting factor to progress, with tensions rising amongst staff. Senior police leaders often hold additional portfolios such as being champions for LGBT, Women etc. but we struggle to find Senior Leaders who champion Race. Institutional racism still exists within the Police service, but today has a different face and guises itself under procedural injustices for performance, selection, discipline, inequality of opportunity etc. It is no longer open and blatant but operates below the surface where it manifests itself behind processes/procedures and inequality of opportunity. The default position for Forces is to not accept the existence any institutional racism and what then follows is a real defensive and rebutting attitude in any race/faith discrimination cases. Reputation damage is guarded against so matters of this nature do not make the public domain. Forces have diversity strategies/policies that highlight “zero tolerance” towards any kind of discrimination and the BAME experience is contrary. Forces are not able to demonstrate through their systems, processes or data sets that they are identifying and rooting out Institutional racism like perhaps in the same way they recognise and are profiling sexual predetation within the service.

6.0 Recommendations

6.1 We recommend that it is now time for positive discrimination to improve and advance the BAME agenda with pace and clear direction.

6.2 We recommend that NPCC prioritise and commission work around identifying and addressing disproportionality within misconduct/grievances procedures and bring greater independent accountability/scrutiny to improve internal/external trust & confidence and also seek alternative means for delegation of appropriate authority responsibilities to eliminate subjectivity, unconscious bias and promote greater transparency.

6.3 We recommend that the HMICFRS have a legitimacy Inspection with a focus on Race/faith disparities in line with HASC recommendations and academic studies.

6.4 We recommend that the COP and Home Office have greater responsibility to hold forces to account on race/faith.

6.5 We recommend that all forces have robust race/faith performance indicators which are linked to senior leadership standards and performance measures.

6.6 We recommend PCCs play a more intrusive and proactive role in ensuring their respective forces deliver against this agenda and incorporate it into their Crime and Policing plans by setting specific aims / objectives.

18 February 2019

Appendix A