Scottish Government

Pride and Prejudice: A Review of police Race Relations in Scotland

Chapter 4 Monitoring and Performance

Introduction

4.1 Throughout the inspection, HMIC was reminded of the importance of ensuring policies translate into actual police services. Being able to demonstrate the translation of policy into practice is an important task for any police force and is critical for sustaining the co-operation and support of the community. This needs to be done in a way which is neither overly complex nor overly bureaucratic so it can be readily accepted and understood.

Performance indicators

4.2 The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report ³¹ suggested areas for developing performance indicators on race issues. These areas were endorsed for Scotland in the HMIC Without Prejudice?³² inspection of 2000. Consequently, ACPOS developed a suite of performance indicators on race issues during 2001 in close consultation with Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, the Scottish Executive, Audit Scotland, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Justice Minister's Steering Group on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.

4.3 A broad range of policing activity is covered - racist incidents and crime, partnership working and third party reporting, police complaints, recruitment and retention, career development and training. These subjects cut across the policing spectrum, reflecting the nature of work in racial diversity.

4.4 In any assessment of performance, it is critical that key indicators are selected which can best illustrate how an organisation is progressing. For the Scottish Police Service this is achieved through the use of select statutory performance indicators. On race issues, the statutory indicators are:

• The number of racist incidents reported per 1,000 general population
• The number of crime-related racist incidents
• The percentage of crime-related racist incidents reported, which have been cleared up.

4.5 This focus on racist crime as a key area of performance is right and reflects the impetus provided by Lord Advocate's Guidelines on racist crime, ³³ referred to in Chapter 3. These are then supported by the suite of racial diversity indicators which have been developed and are contained within the Scottish Police Service performance manual.

4.6 The suite of indicators on racial diversity came fully into effect from 1 April 2002 and will provide forces with information on which to inform future improvements. As the information available grows and is built upon from year to year, so should the Service's ability to identify, respond and improve areas of performance also grow. HMIC will gather the data and publish it regularly within their annual report.

Public satisfaction surveys

4.7 The Scottish Police Service has for some time carried out public satisfaction surveys within each force area. HMIC was pleased to note that police forces have recently amended such surveys at a national level to record ethnicity. This will allow public satisfaction of the police to be assessed along the lines of ethnicity and glean information which was not previously available. This should assist the police in directing their services as effectively as possible.

Ethnic classification

4.8 The subject of ethnic classification has been a much debated area of policy development. The HMIC report Without Prejudice?³⁴ in 2000 made the point that the eight different forces categorised ethnicity in eight different ways, and called for a greater level of standardisation.

4.9 In July 2001, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland decided that where the police should be recording the self defined ethnicity of persons with whom they come into contact, then the categories used in the Scotland 2001 census should be used as a basis. Since that time, individual forces have moved to develop their various recording and monitoring systems accordingly. Consequently, a level of standardisation has been achieved.

4.10 Pursuing the 2001 census categories as a common standard is a sensible step and allows for interaction with the published census results. Chief constables should stay alive to the debate and sensitivity around ethnic classification whilst preserving the standardisation achieved.

4.11 There is deliberately a degree of flexibility afforded to local police forces in the detail of which ethnic categories they use. This allows local circumstances and local population issues to be addressed by forces adding 'sub categories'; for example, including Scottish Travellers as an ethnic group to try and improve the services that minority group receives.

4.12 This approach does not provide for a prescriptive 'single list' that might go some way towards reducing the debate in this area. However, the importance of flexibility was endorsed by the guidance ³⁵ on ethnic monitoring from the Commission for Racial Equality under the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000. This guidance recommended close adherence to the 2001 census classifications with local flexibility to local circumstances.

4.13 There is a distinct difference between self-defined ethnicity and the police need to capture the physical description of certain persons with whom the police interact, e.g. missing or wanted persons. Information in this context is presently categorised within the codes prescribed by the Police National Computer system. The distinction between these two concepts is important and needs to be well understood to avoid confusion. Historically, the concepts had been 'merged' which was both inaccurate and potentially offensive.

Monitoring ethnicity in the criminal justice system

4.14 A recommendation of the Chhokar Inquiry Report ³⁶ by Dr Jandoo called for greater monitoring of ethnicity within the criminal justice system, to include offenders, victims and witnesses. This brings added focus to the ability of criminal justice agencies to monitor their services by ethnicity and thereby avoid potentially discriminatory practice. Crucially though, this recommendation calls for an ability of those agencies to exchange data on ethnicity. This emphasises the importance of standardisation as well as the need for compatible computer systems.

4.15 This area is presently the subject of a scoping study commissioned by the Scottish Executive, the results of which are expected in spring 2003, and should assist Scotland's criminal justice system in providing monitoring of its services by ethnicity.

Race Relations Amendment Act 2000

4.16 The Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 was a direct consequence of Recommendation 11 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report ³⁷ which said:

'The full force of the race relations legislation should apply to all police officers, and that Chief officers should be made vicariously liable for the acts and omissions of their officers relevant to that legislation.'

4.17 The Amendment Act achieved this and more, placing a general duty upon public authorities to actively promote race relations.

4.18 In Scotland, the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 has been introduced in stages. In July 2001, the general duty for public authorities to promote race relations was introduced. On 30 November 2002, public authorities (including individual police forces) had to publish race equality schemes setting out how they would consult and deliver on promoting race relations. Specific duties in employment and service delivery were also introduced.

4.19 HMIC found that all police forces had produced and published a race equality scheme within the time scale set. All of these are in the public domain, produced to a high standard and approved by the Commission for Racial Equality. In all police forces HMIC found an extremely positive attitude towards the new legislation and the value of race equality schemes. A common view was that police forces were in a position of advantage having invested considerable resources into race relations over the past few years. Links with the community fora for consultation and awareness of the issues were already well established. For many practitioners, the production and publication of race equality schemes was a good way of encapsulating and formalising recently developed processes.

4.20 HMIC found a strong sense of self confidence in police forces' ability to fulfil the duties under the legislation.

4.21 HMIC acknowledges that such schemes are still in their infancy. However, there is one point relating to race equality schemes which chief constables may wish to consider further as they develop. In some forces it was not always clear from the reading of a Force's Race Equality Scheme, how the actions and commitments made within the Scheme complemented and linked to the force's wider planning process. This is obviously important to ensure as it places race relations at the heart of the organisation's values and is not seen merely as an 'add on'. Chief constables may wish to satisfy themselves that this link has been effectively made.

4.22 The inspection framework for the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 has been developed by the Commission for Racial Equality, and HMIC will take an active part in this process. Compliance with the Act will be verified during the course of the regular HMIC inspection process, with a close involvement and overview being maintained by the CRE.

External scrutiny

4.23 During its inspection, HMIC found that Scotland's police forces have taken an active approach over the past few years to engage and consult externally on the development of their race relations. This is looked at in depth in Chapter 3 but receives some comment here as such consultation has inevitably become a means of demonstrating performance.

4.24 At a national level, police forces have collectively sought out views and suggestions on national policy as it has developed. These include broad strategic messages as well as specific subject areas such as recruitment, training, racist crime and interpreting. The range of the consultation base has extended from established police multi-agency partners to community activists and campaign leaders. As well as paper based consultation, there have also been visits to the Scottish Police College and the involvement of independent assessors on training courses.

4.25 At a local level, police organisations have developed lay advisory fora which are now scrutinising police policy and practice in a variety of areas.

4.26 The concept of providing critics with an opportunity to influence has not always made things easy for the police in the short term. Such consultation often slows down the time scale and inevitably throws up challenges and disagreements which need to be negotiated and overcome. However, HMIC found the longer term advantage from such consultation to be widely acknowledged and understood. An approach on race relations which has the involvement and support of the community is far more likely to be accepted and successful than one which has not. Indeed, an absence of such consultation has the potential to reinforce perceived barriers and hostility towards the police.

4.27 During the course of the inspection, HMIC was often told by agency or community representatives that the increased level of consultation by the police was a prime reason for the strengthening reputation of the police on race relations. 'They are at least listening' was an often used phrase in reference to the police. Clearly the very act of honest and open consultation has been a significant influence upon police credibility and performance.

Summary

4.28 HMIC found the Scottish Police Service to be scrutinised on its race relations work in a variety of ways, including:

• Self-imposed scrutiny through internal audit and inspection
• HMIC thematic and regular inspection
• Performance indicators
• Public satisfaction surveys
• Legislation - Race Relations Amendment Act 2000
• Lay advisory groups
• National steering committees

4.29 In general, the product of such scrutiny by these methods is placed in the public domain as is right. The amount and intensity of scrutiny in recent times has far exceeded that of other public services. Police professionals on race relations appear accepting of such scrutiny and recognise the importance of it.

4.30 HMIC believes that monitoring of police services and scrutiny of police performance should continue to develop but also be allowed to consolidate. The performance indicators are new and by definition need time to elapse to allow data to be gathered and analysed. Many of the initiatives, particularly methods of lay advice, are new in concept for organisations and a degree of caution is appropriate in their implementation. A period of time to allow the various methods of scrutiny to settle in should now be afforded.

4.31 In assessing performance in police race relations, it is important that a balance is maintained alongside other policing functions. A cursory glance at all the performance indicators for the Scottish Police Service is all that is needed to see that race and community relations issues predominate.

4.32 Of course, the police in Scotland provide many varied functions and services for the people in Scotland. Race relations is an important part of that service. But it is just that, a part of a comprehensive policing service with a finite amount of resources.

4.33 HMIC believes the high priority given to race relations in recent years has been correctly balanced and that continuous improvement must now be sustained. Equally, so must improvement in other areas of policing be allowed to develop and flourish.

4.34 This report is the product of the second general thematic inspection of police race relations in Scotland in recent years. Race relations has also become a standing element of the regular inspection programme of police forces carried out by HMIC and is encompassed within the HMIC Annual Report. This process has recently been reviewed and updated in consultation with the Commission for Racial Equality to accommodate the long term approach to monitoring compliance with the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000.

4.35 HMIC considers that a more sustainable and robust regime is thus emerging to monitor performance on race relations and suggests the leaning should be towards greater reliance on this regular cyclical inspection regime than periodic thematic inspections.