大象传媒

by Kurt Barling
大象传媒 London's Special Correspondent

The Metropolitan Police service is in tricky waters, yet again, over issues of racism and the quality of its leadership.

Freshly deployed political muscle by the Mayor Boris Johnson to determine the fate of the top cop also means fighting crime in the capital is in danger of getting tied up in broader political battles.

It would seem that in public life many people have short memories.听 Twenty-three years ago I stumbled into the Broadwater Farm conflagration.听 That night of madness and mayhem was a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Much of the anger expressed by the young people at the time mirrored the sentiments that, four years earlier, led to the riots in Brixton.

Broadwater Farm Riots 1985

All the following forms of racism have been acknowledged by official institutions; police racism on the streets, racism in police stations and racism in the courts and the rest of the criminal justice system.听

In short, a lack of respect for the rights of those individuals who come into contact with the police and court system because of the colour of their skin.

When I was a teenager in seventies London, the consequences were plain for everyone to see.听 Few black people wanted the aggravation that went with joining the police and few in the service made any attempt to encourage black people to join.

Back then, black police officers on the streets were habitually referred to as 鈥淛udas鈥� by many young black people.听 I鈥檓 afraid to say black officers were even spat at by fellow black Londoners just for being a black cop.听 Strangely enough it was the same story for journalists.

'institutionally racist'

What the Broadwater Farm explosion taught police was that they had to deal with black communities differently.听听 It was made even more urgent, carrying out the reforms proposed by Lord Scarman, in the wake of the Brixton riots, to create effective mechanisms so minority communities could be heard.

Credit: Getty Images

Since the Macpherson inquiry over a decade ago it has been widely reported that the police service is 鈥渋nstitutionally racist鈥�.听 The catastrophic failings in the police investigation into the death of Stephen Lawrence exposed a system incapable of adjusting to the modern diverse city it served.听

The inquiry recognised that a service largely bereft of black and Asian faces could not possibly serve the most culturally diverse city on the planet.

Within black communities, too, the question of accountability of the police service, championed by the likes of the late Bernie Grant and a multitude of community activists mirrored the calls for change within the Met Police.

Sir Ian Blair was instrumental in raising many of these difficult issues internally.听听 He was one of many senior managers who recognised that the two way process of accountability and consultation was a prerequisite for a more effective policing of London.

falling crime rates

When he arrived in 2005, Blair鈥檚 first structural change was to institute neighbourhood policing.听 It was an unprecedented move to engage local communities in setting their local policing and crime priorities.听听 It has been a huge success by most counts and by the one that matters most to Londoners 鈥� crime rates are falling.

One of the unusual consequences of recruiting large numbers of Police Community Support Officers is that there are now more black and Asian people in a public policing role than ever before.

A few weeks ago I was filming in Walthamstow and one of the young men I got talking to, about the consequences for young Muslims of the terror threat, mentioned in passing that he was aiming to join the police service.听听

He saw it as a positive way of changing the service from within.听听 None of the peer group he was with even raised an eyebrow. That is just one example of how attitudes towards policing have changed.

In the battle against gun and knife crime it is black communities and community organisers within those communities that have got involved with police liaison groups.听 The Metropolitan Police are having real success in catching the perpetrators of knife crime (even though communities are struggling to stop it) precisely because of that involvement.

In the ongoing struggle to keep ahead of those plotting terror attacks the police have come to rely heavily on intelligence from communities that are used by such people to camouflage their activities.听

more police demanded

All this adds up to a fundamental change over the past 10 years of policing culture and police community inter-action.听 The police no longer believe that they can police a city like London on their own.听 Whether they like it or not they have recognised they need Londoners to keep communities safer.

大象传媒 London's Kurt Barling

By the same token in communities where there was an overwhelming sense of dread 10 years ago, now there is a greater willingness to engage with the police and to demand more policing (not less) to make their communities safer.听听

This is a dramatic change.听 But not one necessarily set in stone because it is predicated on trust.听 A public commodity that can be too easily taken for granted and lost by public figures.

It is ironic that the Police Commissioner who was most determined to change the ethnic complexion of the force has ended up with his reputation grievously wounded by minority officers personally accusing him of discrimination.

Now there are many more black police and Asian officers in all ranks.听 Of course, ompared with a city like New York,听 London is still extraordinarily unrepresentative in its police service.听

Mind you, if you take a look around other public services you won鈥檛 find it an awful lot different elsewhere.听 The Metropolitan Police has at least recognised there is an issue and has been busy dealing with it.

police boycott

It is curious though that through all this hullabaloo it is the Black Police Association that is making much of the running on racism and even now advising black and Asian youngsters to avoid choosing the police service as a career.听

One hopes, although it is not entirely clear, that the focus of their private internal concerns about employment rights is driven by a sense of public duty.听 That is to say that the public is being poorly served by the type of service that is emerging in the wake of Macpherson.听听

They are not making it clear why preventing more Black and Asian recruits from joining the police will help make London a safer city.

Finally, there is the Metropolitan Police Authority set up to hold the service to account and provide Londoners with a representative system for engaging with those who police us.听听 It may not be flawless but it is certainly a more open mechanism than what went before it.

We must hope that the newly revamped MPA chaired by Mayor Boris Johnson remains representative and not a crude instrument of politics.听

Making London safer still is a long haul and it needs all sections of the capital鈥檚 diverse communities to be engaging with the police and if necessary joining it.