- Conference
- 2004 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 31 October 2003
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes the recent BBC programme blowing the whistle by extremists among Greater Manchester Police recruits.
A member of one of the Manchester Local Authority equal opportunity forums indicated that he was horrified that one of the forums had not met in over a year at a time when equal opportunities and race issues are an urgent priority.
He therefore called for the resignation of the head of one of the forums, a politician.
In the documentary Greater Manchester Police recruits were expressing extreme racist views. It was clear in the programme that some police officers abused their powers by harassing black people. Although some officers had been suspended or had resigned, this is not enough to combat racism. It was admitted that the documentary had brought equal opportunities issues into the public arena, institutional racism is still rife in the police force. The race agenda is not given enough priority. In the recruitment of police officers the balance between white and black is not right.
We understand that Trevor Phillips,m the chair of Commission for Racial Equality has written to all police forces asking them for their racism policies. The MP for \Oldham says a lot of police officers have contacted him to say that the picture painted is not right. Fighting racism is a basic trade union issue. It appears that diversity training is not working.
Conference notes that racial discrimination is not only confined to the police officer branch of the service, and the black workers who are employed as police civilians face tremendous discrimination.
Conference calls on the National Black Members’ Committee to work with the Police Service Group Executive to:
1)submit evidence to the CRE inquiry announced by Trevor Phillips, highlighting the discrimination faced by black workers working as civilians in the police services;
2)strengthen links with the National Black Police Association in order to ensure that issues of discrimination are addressed across the police service.