Policing - new material (54)
01 January 2001
Bürgerrechte & Polizei, Cilip 67 Nr 3/2000, pp110, £5.
Police violence and lack of accountability is the focus of this issue of the German civil liberties research publication. Articles focus on: the inadequate definition of brutality which leads to the failure of addressing other forms of intimidating police behaviour, racist police conduct in the form of disproportionate police brutality directed against black communities and the lack of an independent police commission for the notorious Hamburg police force. The European dimension of the lack of police accountability is highlighted in a contribution on police brutality and inadequate appeals procedures in the UK and France. Also included is a critique of the official tampering with statistical evidence to "reduce" the number of fatal police killings and articles on the south-eastern stability pact (which paved the way for increasing international police cooperation) and on the recently introduced German police laws, which follow the UK in curbing individual liberties in the form of large-scale CCTV surveillance, new powers for arbitrary stop and search operations and wire-tapping. Available from: Verlag Cilip, c/o FU Berlin, Malteserstr. 74-100, 12249 Berlin, Tel: 0049(0)30 838 70462, info@cilip.de, www.cilip.de.
Hard cell, Lisa Bratby. Police Review vol 109 no 5603, 2001, pp19-20.
This article discusses Bradford constabularies "community involvement cell", which was put into operation last July and has a team of up to 12 community safety and race relations officers who work alongside investigating officers "during major incidents and times of disorder or potential disorder...". Inspector Martin Baines, who developed the cell, says that the principle behind it is to "manage our involvement with the community outside an ongoing operation or incident. Staff in the cell are able to manage the intervention and involvement with the community freeing up the operational commander or investigating officer."
Leading the race, Stuart Mulraney and Roger Graf. Police Review 15.12.00, pp19-20.
Interview with Roger Graf who has written extensively on the police and racism for 25 years. Following Macpherson, he describes "the visible history" of institutionalised racism and says: "I have seen many unwittingly racist acts, but I still haven't seen it done on purpose all that often." Contradicting this is his observation of "coppers with NF badges" being "lenient on NF marches but hard on the protesters", a claim made by anti-racist for many years but dismissed by the media.
Spiralling costs of Old Bill, Paul Donovan. Red Pepper February 2001, pp26-27 & 34.
This article considers recent cases of compensation payments for police officers discriminated against by their own force. It discovers that "millions of pounds of public money is being lost because police employment practices remain doggedly in the dark ages."
Widening access: Improving police relations with hard to reach groups, Trevor Jones & Tim Newburn. Police Research Series (Home Office) Paper 138, pp72.
This report is part of a Home Office programme of research on police-community relations, and looks at consultation with "vulnerable sections of society". It is based on a telephone survey of police forces in England and Wales and more detailed research in five case study forces.
Attitudes of people from minority ethnic communities towards a career in the police service, Vanessa Stone and Rachel Tuffin. Police Research Series (Home Office) Paper 136 (November) 2000, pp4.
The paper seeks to "identify the main factors influencing people's attitudes towards a career in the police service and to examine how these might influence recruitment strategies." These attitudes were probably more accurately reflected in January when the Metropolitan police commissioner, John Stevens, announced that his force had recruited 218 minority officers between March and September 2000. He was later forced to admit