Police forces will not be representative of communities until 2041 – nearly 50 years after the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, a scathing report warns today.
Stephen, who wanted to be an architect, was 19 when he was stabbed to death by a gang in South East London in 1993.
His death triggered wide-ranging reviews into the relationship between black people and police, including the 1999 Macpherson Report.
The Commons Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday says that “whilst policing has changed for the better in many areas, there are still serious and deep-rooted racial disparities, and that neither police forces nor governments have taken race equality seriously enough for too long”.
MPs fear that “without real and sustainable change, the effectiveness and legitimacy of the police will be undermined, and it will take another two decades for police forces in England and Wales to reflect the communities they serve”.
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The committee says: “On current rates of progress, police forces won’t be representative of their communities for another 20 years – that would be 40 years after the Macpherson report raised the issue and nearly half a century after the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence.
“This is inexcusable. New minimum targets must be set immediately for current recruitment so that all forces in England and Wales reflect the ethnic diversity of their local populations and a national target of at least 14% is met by 2030.”
The study says the Macpherson Report’s “overall aim of 'the elimination of racist prejudice and disadvantage, and the demonstration of fairness in all aspects of policing', has still not been met”.
Committee chairwoman Yvette Cooper, a former Shadow Home Secretary, said: “The Macpherson Report into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence and the terrible denial of justice to his family had a huge impact on policing and tackling racism when it was first published.
“But we have found that in too many areas progress has stalled and for too long there has been a lack of focus and accountability on race equality in policing.
“There are still persistent, deep-rooted problems and unjustified racial disparities in key areas where Sir William Macpherson made recommendations over twenty years ago.
“That is unacceptable and must change. Without clear action to tackle race inequality we fear that, in 10 years’ time, future committees will be hearing the very same arguments that have been rehearsed already for over 20 years.
“That cannot be allowed to happen.”
She said that unless ministers tackled the problems, “community confidence in the police” and “principles around fairness in policing will be permanently undermined”.
Recommendations include appointing a “new statutory Race Equality Commissioner for Policing to investigate and scrutinise progress alongside a new Race Equality Steering Group to be chaired by the Home Secretary”.
MPs also call for a “new strategy” for tackling “the rise of online racist crime”.
Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said: “The Macpherson Report left an indelible mark on policing following the terrible murder of Stephen Lawrence.
“Good progress has been made since its publication.
“Our police are more diverse than ever before, forces have worked hard to improve community engagement and we have seen major improvements in the way the police deal with racist crimes.
“But we know there is much more to do – that is why attracting more officers from a wide range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds is a core ambition of our drive to recruit an extra 20,000 officers.
“Stop and search along with other preventative activity set out in the Beating Crime Plan is also vital to ensuring we create safer streets and neighbourhoods.”
