Throughout their careers in the British police, former officers Shabnam and Audrey say they experienced racism They believe change must take place to improve diversity and attitudes within the force
Working in Bethnal Green, Chaudhri had landed her dream job. She was out nicking the bad guys, something she'd always wanted to do. However, she says it wasn't long before the racism she hoped to fight through policing became evident within the police itself. Shabnam says she experienced racism from some of her colleagues; at the time she considered it just the normal banter that was insidious throughout the organisation.
"There was a general feeling from a number of our correspondents that grievance procedures were operating to their disadvantage," says Sir David Calvert-Smith, who led the team that produced the report. "In fairness to the Met they did try to address the inequalities for black and minority officers and introduced good processes, but there wasn't a full cultural transformation," she says.
For Chaudhri, however, this was more than a bureaucratic error. It indicated there was a culture within some elements of the Met where unfounded prejudices about officers from ethnic minorities still remained. Previously unpublished Home Office figures seen by the BBC show how specialist police units too continue to be dominated by white officers. Last year there were only two ethnic minority officers among 184 in the mounted police; 15 out of 734 dog handlers; and 11 among 426 detectives in special investigations teams. The Home Office collected the data on the principal roles of officers from 42 forces across England and Wales.
"I was devastated. It kind of came like a bolt out of the blue! Of course, I recognised how serious it was, it's a sackable offence. I could have lost my job," she says. "My work - through workshops and outreach work - supported under-represented groups, bringing communities together to eradicate hate crime," she says.Although she was cleared of falsifying her working hours, and of gross misconduct, she was found to have complied poorly with timekeeping rules and was given advice on using the"booking on" system correctly. Then she finally got the job as superintendent.
A number of reasons have been suggested to explain the disparity. Some people say the misconduct process is used against officers from ethnic minority backgrounds. Another explanation is that managers are less likely to address misconduct issues informally, when they concern BAME officers, for fear of being accused of racism.
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