Bill's Comment Page

Police racism in Britain glaringly exposed

Last evening, the BBC aired a documentary in which an undercover reporter, Mark Daly, joined Greater Manchester Police as a probationary police officer and spent seven months undergoing training and gaining work experience, and secretly filming and recording much of his interaction with his fellow trainees.

The programme revealed an alarming level of racism amongst some new recruits, which has resulted, so far, in the resignation of five officers and the suspension of a further three. In the immediate aftermath of the programme, only one officer resigned (Pc Robert Pulling of North Wales Police), with the other seven facing suspension - presumably the other four chose to resign during today.

Pc Robert Pulling, from North Wales Police, was certainly the most blatant racist of those shown yesterday evening, his racism being pretty freely expressed. For example, donning a mock-up Ku Klux Klan mask and suggesting openly that he would like to murder a 'Paki' if he thought he could get away with it, as well as stating that he had dealt with two very similar and minor motoring offences in completely different ways, based solely on one driver having been white and the other 'a Paki'.

In the wake of these revelations, there is a major damage limitation exercise being mounted by the three police forces directly implicated in the programme (North Wales, Greater Manchester and Cheshire), and two of these police forces (Greater Manchester and Cheshire) have already placed statements on their websites deploring the sordid reality of the racism present in their midst and pledging to do their best to eliminate it.

North Wales Police held a major press conference this morning (shown on BBC News 24 - I watched most of it), during which the Deputy Chief Constable said he had felt "physically sick" whilst watching the programme last evening. As well he might! (see below)

When I checked North Wales Police website this morning, there was no change at that time to the somewhat 'apple pie' statement of their policy on racism:

North Wales Police Race Equality Scheme North Wales Police is committed to delivering a service which through fairness meets and is seen to meet the diverse needs of all the communities in North Wales.

It is pretty clear, however, that this policy at present is just so much meaningless drivel, if the revelations in respect of their employee Pc Robert Pulling are a guide.

Update: Since then, North Wales Police have posted a statement on their website by the Deputy Chief Constable, referred to above.

Despite the obvious sincerity of the Greater Manchester Police website statement, though, it was reported by the BBC last August that a BBC reporter had been arrested whilst working undercover, in a bid to investigate claims of institutional racism in the police force at the Greater Manchester Police Stockport division, on "suspicion of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception". He was released on bail the following day, after the BBC issued a statement that his police wages had been kept in a separate account and would have been handed back to the police at the end of his undercover assignment. It is not entirely clear that this refers to Mark Daly, as the reporter was not named in the August incident. (Addendum: [added on 8 November 2003] - I have just been watching my video recording of this programme again and realise I must have not listened carefully enough to Mark Daly's programme introduction explaining that he was the person in the August incident - in the light of this I have added an additional sentence after the first sentence in the following paragraph)

This needs to be borne in mind when reading the section of the North Wales Police statement this morning, during their press conference, in which they criticise the BBC for not having brought most of the matters revealed in the documentary yesterday to the immdediate attention of the police. (Added sentence which reflects my present sentiments [see Addendum dated 8 November 2003 above]: It is quite clear to me that the Police, in Manchester at least, realised that a public relations disaster was heading their way and their attempts, and those of Home Secretary David Blunkett, to claim ignorance prior to the broadcast and to dismiss it as a 'stunt' were simply clumsy attempts to divert attention and needs to be dismissed entirely. In the light of this, what I wrote in the first part of the sentence which follows no longer represents, in any way, my view - I no longer agree with the Police sentiment in any way.) In an ideal world, I would tend to agree with the police sentiment, but in the real world in which we all must live I consider that the action of the BBC was not only necessary, but the only procedure that would have ensured that the true situation within these three police forces, at least, could be revealed. I do not have the absolute confidence that efforts would not have been made to try and prevent the documentary being broadcast had the police been kept more fully informed at an earlier stage.

It would be naive to assume that these are the only three police forces where such racism lurks, in my view. I suspect it exists to some extent in ALL police forces throughout the UK, so none of the others can afford to be complacent. It is perfectly clear that it is not always easy to identify those police recruits, or serving officers, who have unacceptable attitudes which may affect the way they deal with people they come into contact with in the course of their professional activity. It is also perfectly clear, however, that the undoubtedly sincere efforts presently made in most police forces to tackle the problem are not proving effective.

Very depressing.