Behind the window dressing: Ethnic minority police perspectives on cultural diversity

Abstract

Bedrock assumptions about the benefits of recruiting more ethnic minority police officers and enhancing cultural diversity training for police are critically evaluated by black and Asian police officers in Britain. Neither policy finds favour among groups which articulate a previously concealed interpretation of such aims: that their value lies in presenting an outward image of action rather than furthering the public good. The research reported in this paper - the first to have gained the cooperation of British police services - involved unstructured interviews with officers from African Caribbean and South Asian backgrounds. The interviews took place in the 18 months following the publication of the Macpherson Report in February 1999 and reflected some of the policy recommendations made by the report, which was based on the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence. Interviewees analyse the two central policy directives advanced by both the Macpherson Report and the Scarman Report, which had been published 18 years before. Both policies concern the enhancement of cultural diversity as a way of combating racism. Cynically regarded in some quarters as 'window dressing', the policies are not seen as helpful, nor even harmless, but as pernicious in that they contrive to give the appearance of progress, while actually achieving little. Interviews were subject to strict confidentiality and conducted in circumstances of the officers' choice in the effort to minimise any inhibitions about expressing views candidly. The officers' perspective is revealed by extensive use of verbatim quotations which drive the narrative of the article. They indicate how far the viewpoints of ethnic minority officers contrast with official policy.