An endemic evil

We have to stamp out police bigotry

Leader
guardian.co.uk, Sunday October 26 2003 01.46 GMT

The furore over The Secret Policeman, the seven-month investigation by the BBC into racism at the police training college at Bruche in Cheshire, will not go away. And nor should it. The story began as another row between government and BBC, but it soon became clear that an exemplary piece of investigative journalism had revealed a level of prejudice that shocked the most street-hardened chief constables. Regrettably, David Blunkett reached for the soundbite before properly reflecting on the gravity of the situation revealed.

But senior police officers have been almost united in their condemnation, not of the film, but of the staggering racism it exposed. The Association of Chief Police Officers and senior figures in the Metropolitan Police have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the National Black Police Association to express horror at what the BBC revealed. No one is talking about a few bad apples. The scandalously low levels of recruitment from the ethnic minorities in the North West and, in particular, in north Wales - where there are only seven black or Asian officers - suggest that the problem is endemic.

The causes are complex and have their roots in the communities the police serve: increasing segregation of schools on racial lines, dumping of asylum seekers in run-down industrial towns and, above all, an institutional failure in the police forces to combat racism.

The BBC has raised the alarm. Now Mr Blunkett has to act. A priority must be active in-service anti-racism training. Second, we should not be afraid to call for more intrusive monitoring within the police to highlight pockets of racism. Finally, we must learn to listen. Complaints of racist treatment are too easily dismissed. In such a climate, the kind of incidents we witnessed on The Secret Policeman will continue to thrive.