Police forces are not treating allegations of racism against officers robustly, a police watchdog has said after an investigation found less than one per cent of complaints to forces were upheld. Channel 4’s Dispatches programme used freedom of information laws to discover that only a tiny proportion of 7,963 complaints of racism lodged with police forces in England and Wales led to action being taken against officers. Between 2005 and 2012 only 77, or 0.97 per cent of the total, upheld after internal inquiries were completed. It also found some officers had faced repeated claims about their attitudes to race. The programme said 43 police officers in England and Wales had had four allegations of racism made against them and 16 officers had five or more. None of the officers involved was sanctioned. Three forces – Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire and Lancashire – upheld none of the allegations reported to them at all. Asked about its record Greater Manchester Police said that since the period covered by the figures they had upheld two complaints, adding: “There are very clear improvements that need to be made and this will now happen.” Dame Anne Owers, the chairwoman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said: “What we’ve found when we’ve dug into the way that forces handle complaints of race discrimination and indeed discrimination in general is that they don’t do it well and the evidence seems to be that those complaints are less likely to be upheld than other kinds of complaints.” Asked if she thought forces were failing to weed out a minority of racist officers, she said: “I think there must be a risk given that we know that complaints of discrimination are not being dealt with as robustly as they should.” Chief Constable Mike Cunningham, a spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “There is no place for racism in the police service. “That is fundamental requirement of being a member of the British police service and if an officer falls short of those high expectations in some cases immediately they ought to be dismissed.” However, Dispatches found one police officer who was labelled “racist” by a judge in a civil court in 2003 is still working for the Metropolitan Police. Pc Kevin Bridgeman and another officer were described as “vicious and cowardly” in their abuse of Sylbert Farquharson in 1995. Mr Farquharson, 58, was awarded damages of £250,000 for assault, wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution at the hands of five white officers. He had been driving in south London when he saw his cousin being arrested, and stopped to speak to the officers involved. He claimed he was beaten and racially abused. An internal investigation – carried out by another force, Greater Manchester Police - found no evidence of racial abuse by Pc Kevin Bridgeman, who denied all the allegations. Pc Bridgeman is still employed by the Metropolitan Police. A spokesman for the force said: “The matter has been thoroughly investigated and the allegation of racism was not substantiated. The officer has since been returned to full duties.” Mr Farquharson said it was “disgusting” and “unacceptable” that Pc Bridgeman was still employed as an officer. Pc Bridgeman declined to comment. Steve White, chairman of the Police Federation, which represents frontline officers said: “The police service has a come a long way when it comes to dealing with allegations of racism over the years and needs to continue to work positively against racism and discrimination into the future.” The programme is due to be broadcast TODAY on Channel 4 on Monday June 16 at 8pm Read the original feature on the Telegraph website:
Posted on: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 07:07:34 +0000
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