On Monday 9th November, a latest report noted that the Black, Asian and minority-ethnic (BAME) police officers receive harsher penalties than their white colleagues when a complaint is made against them. BAME officers are reportedly more likely to have their cases referred to professional standards departments for an official investigation that stays on their record, even for more minor complaints it has emerged.
The Times cited the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) report which said that officers often described being subjected to “unfounded investigations” based on poor evidence and suffered “unfair treatment compared to white colleagues” and that many were refusing to join the service owing to their negative experiences. The study was based on an analysis of 15,441 complaints in England and Wales and noted that 33% of complaints made by members of the public against BAME officers were referred straight into the disciplinary process, compared to 12% against white officers. Reportedly there was also a disparity in internal conduct complaints, with 93% BAME cases assessed as misconduct or gross misconduct compared with 85% for white colleagues.
The report noted, “The internal culture within the service is feeding the levels of disparity due to fear of reprisals or being labelled. Inadvertently the avoidance of dealing with low-level matters at the earliest opportunity is magnifying those levels of distrust and resulting in the exact consequences those supervisors are seeking to avoid.”
