Twenty Years on From MacPherson: A Critical Analysis of Institutional Racism in the Police

Chapter 1: Introduction

Historically, white male dominated police service has continuously been scrutinized for its racist
culture and lack of Black and Asian officers. The poor reputation of police service being institutionally
racist and has created intense feelings of discontent among ethnic minorities (Bhugowandeen,
2013). Lord Scarman Inquiry into the 1981 Brixton riots was held due to issues between the police
and minority communities. While Scarman acknowledged the existence of “unconscious racism”
within the policing of minority communities the report rejected the term institutional racism.
Eighteen years later, the concept of institutional racism was bought into the centre of national
debate in the UK when the MacPherson Report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence claimed the
Metropolitan Police Service were institutionally racist. This has been identified as “watershed” in
race relations, with the use of the term becoming a focus for political movements (Souhami, 2012).

1.2 A Brief History of Police Diversity

Police diversity has been a recurring theme which has been used to describe the development of
policing since the Lawrence Report. Emsley (1996) and Reiner (2000) explain that although police
diversity has been used in police documents n the past however it recently it has been represented
as new an agenda which has been incorporated within police service to solve its relations with ethnic
minorities. This is supported by Morris (1994) who argues that it was crucial to bring in this new
agenda as the ethnic communities were seen as “dangerous classes” by police service which
therefore created a rift between them. Although the fact of policing a diverse and complex society is
not a recent challenge to the police service; however, the realization that some section of society
has distinctive policing need has been an entirely new development. This recognition had been a
considerable push by The Lawrence Report (Rowe, 2004).

Police culture has always been responsible for the wrong and discriminatory attitudes that are
displayed by the police officers. Bacon (2016) argues that police officers are not "institutionalized
clones" as the recruits of trainees do not automatically change their behaviour according to police
culture; however, they learn this along the way by following the footsteps of senior officers. They
observe how senior officers treat BME communities (Brown, 2013).

Foster et al. (2005) and Holdaway (2009) state that racial prejudice and discrimination with the
police workforce has been found in multiple researchers and analyses were done on police officers
and their behaviour towards the ethnic minorities. This is supported by Reiner(2010) who discusses
that racial prejudice is one of the vital aspects of police conservativism and is seen through their
work(Brown, 2013).

1.3 Defining Racism

Scarman (1981) introduces the notion of “bad apple thesis."He argues that policies introduced by
Metropolitan Police are not racist. Besides this he states racial prejudice can be found infrequently in
the behaviour of some officers on the street; therefore the whole institution should not be judged
based on these "bad apples." Using this definition, he argued that a minority of police officers
articulated racism. Mason (1984) however argues that this concept failed to determine a clear
theoretical bias for specifying why this is institutional racism rather than individual racism? Mason
(1984) instead called for analytical tools which should explain "the interplay of social structures and
human action, material conditions and ideas” (PHILLIPS, 2010). Similarly, Holdaway and O’Neill
(2006) as they discuss that Scarman should have acknowledged that individuals from institutions.
Griever and French (2000) outline institutional racism as “stereotyping." They argue that this is
about “unwitting ignorance” as well as “failing to recognise racist and hate crime." They further
define this concept as about "white pretence and black people are seen as a problem." The term
became part of mainstream political discourse as Macpherson labelled the Metropolitan Police
Service institutionally racist for its failed investigation.

The validity of this concept was challenged by numerous right-wing press as well as the front-line
officers who interpreted this as individual racism rather than institutional racism, this concept to
reforming of policing and race equality measures (Foster et al.,2005). Despite this process seeming
an essential key to reforming of policing as well as the originator of a new equality agenda, it was
critiqued by various constituencies.

Oakley (1999) suggests that institutional racism is defined as how racism impacts police delivery, it is
seen mainly through the deliberate actions of individuals however through more systematic
tendency which unconsciously had an impact on the police performance.

MacPherson further criticised Scarman as the report stated that the police as entire institutional was
racist. Although both Scarman and MacPherson have different perspectives on the notion of
institutional racism, the leading theory of institutional racism still depends upon Scarman’s idea of
individual racism which was adopted by some officers.

1.4 Police Discretion and Police Culture

Discretion exists when officers must choose an appropriate response to a situation. Although
discretion is crucial to police work, it has always been quite controversial. Brooks (2010) argues that
while the police service requires discretion to deal with community members as well as to address
minor violations this can often lead to misconduct which mainly results in the disruption between
the relationship of members of community and police officers. Therefore, to minimize police
misconduct, various restrictions on discretion have been suggested to minimize the effects of an
officer's bias behaviour further. Gellar and Scott (1992) argue that Black individuals are essentially
overrepresented in cases where officers have used lethal force. They argue, these are mainly due to
a police patrol in minority communities which usually leads to hostile encounters between ethnic
minorities and the police officers. They further argue that these hostile encounters are not very
common within white communities(Nowacki, 2011).

1.5 Methodology

This dissertation will follow the

1.6 Dissertation Outline

This dissertation will further highlight the issues of institutional racism within Police Service. The
following three chapters on stop and search, recruitment and training will focus on how the police
service treats BME communities in the past and today. It will further explain the solutions to these
issues and whether it affected to end the racism. Although within regards to recruitment the Police
defended their failure to recruit ethnic minorities by pointing to cultural factors. There have been
various ethnic minority recruitment initiatives which have developed rapidly within the British
Police. Therefore, to end the racism within the institutions such as the police force, it is essential to
set up new arrangements to recruit more ethnic officers for our diverse society. However
irrespective of rapid growth in the UK’s level of multiculturalism various institutions such as police
still must reflect on diversity within their workforce.
HAVE A LOOK: http://www.mheducation.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335216749.pdf

https://wrasse.plymouth.ac.uk/extract/essay-critically-analyse-the-concept-of-institutional-racism-
in-policing-and

Bibliography:
Bhugowandeen, B. (2013). Diversity in the British police: adapting to a multicultural
society. Mémoire(s), identité(s), marginalité(s) dans le monde occidental contemporain, (10).

Brown, J. (2013). The future of policing. 1st ed. London: Routledge.

Nowacki, J. (2011). Organizational-Level Police Discretion. Crime & Delinquency, 61(5), pp.643-668.

PHILLIPS, C. (2010). Institutional Racism and Ethnic Inequalities: An Expanded Multilevel

Rowe, M. (2004). Policing, race and racism. Cullompton: Willan.

Souhami, A. (2012). Institutional racism and police reform: an empirical critique. Policing and Society,
24(1), pp.1-21.