Chapter 4: Training

Training

Cashmore (year) referred to the term diversity training as “racism awareness training” as this
particular term was not particularly acknowledged in forces and many of his interviewees
experienced racism awareness training instead of diversity training. He highlighted and
argued that training regarding community and race relations issues was inconsistent around
the country. Institutional racism is said to be universal throughout institutions of British
society. This also includes the police service. Due to the nature of the police profession, it is
crucial to address the issues of institutional racism as they can have a severe impact on the
public. On the one hand, although some people might argue that every officer should tackle
institutional racism is mainly the responsibility of senior management within the service to
identify and remove the barriers (O'Neill and Holdaway, 2007).

Furthermore, senior management is also responsible for ensuring all the trainee officers or the
front line officers who deal with ethnic minority groups are trained, as well as the skills and
knowledge to deal with racist incidents. These officers have the responsibility to provide
adequate service to ethnic groups. Therefore although various initiatives have been taken by
police to address these issues from two decades institutional racism within the police is still a
significant issue.Training was mainly focused and directed at internal equal opportunities
problems rather than external relationships with the community. This consequently led to
misunderstandings and issues within the police force and ethnic minorities. This is because
ethnic minorities were facing various racial problems which needed to be tackled. This
chapter will examine the role that equal opportunities, community and race relations training
can play in fostering a better understanding between the police, those they serve and the
issues relating to training within the police service. It will further explore the history of
training, Police Training Council, as well as recommendations, made Scarman and
Macpherson within their reports o improve training. Lastly, this chapter will examine the
effectiveness of training programmes (Oakley, 1999)

History of Race Relations/Diversity Training in the Police

Since the 1970s the traditional policing curriculum changed in various aspects with more
attention given to community and race relations (Rowe & Garland, 2003). According to
HMIC (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, the forerunner to Her Majesty's
Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services) the Metropolitan Police introduced
elements of social and humanitarian skills to the curriculum during the early 1970s,
community relations and race (CRR) also became an essential part of the curriculum in 1973
(HMIC YEAR). Since community relations and race training were first introduced, this has
become one of the significant aspects within police training programmes with a focus on both
internal relations and external service delivery (GET REFERENCE).

Scarman

While CRR training had been introduced in the Metropolitan Police Force Area in the 1970s,
the Scarman Report (1981, PAGE) recommended that all police officers should receive
training on community race relations. This included both experienced staff as well as the new
trainees. Scarman argued that more time should be dedicated to terms of developing recruits.
He argues this is crucial as they can spend that time learning more other cultural backgrounds
and understand our diverse society (O'Neill and Holdaway, 2007)

These recommendations were followed up by a more detailed report from Police Training
Council (PTC). The PTC made various series of recommendations which continued to be
present at this time. They argued that CRR training needs to be more clearly defined and that
it is crucial that all officers should receive substantial training on topics that can help resolve
issues of Institutional racism within police force by monitoring their performance, as well as
their behaviour towards ethnic minority communities. These recommendations were followed
up by Home Office which contracted Brunel University to deliver CRR training to police
services (GET REFERENCE). The programme was named "reflective practitioner." The
main purpose of this training aim was to encourage police officers to reflect on the impact of
their behaviour on ethnic minority communities. However, this programme was criticized by
Oakley (YEAR) who noted. Oakley argues that there were various problems which prevented
the programme from achieving its aims. One of the main issues highlighted by Oakley was
that the police service as an institution was quite reluctant to admit that institutional racism
was an issue which was the root of all the issues. Oakley suggested that naming the courses
"community relations" diverted the attention from the notion of the institutional racism which
needed to be acknowledged. In addition to this Oakley further argued that although training
providers wished to provide in-depth training, so officers are fully trained to tackle any
situation, the police service demands high turnover programmes that could quickly train large
numbers of staff (Cashmore, 2001).

Hall (1988) argues historically "lay involvement" within the training process has frequently
involved members of ethnic communities to get their perspectives on the police CRR
training. This, therefore, led to the incorporation of four new approaches. Those include the
black experience approach, the intellectual approach, the balancing act, and the information
focus approach. The black experience approach was the first approach.This particular
approach stated that "black individuals are asked to "tell us where it hurts." Secondly, the
intellectual approach suggested white people of various professional, as well as academic
institutions, discuss minority communities" without first-hand knowledge of their past." The
third approach is known as "balancing approach" which stated that police and ethnic minority
communities are equally responsible for the poor car. The fourth approach comes from a
belief that issues arose as "whites " misunderstood "non-white cultures." As CRR Training
was less focused on these approaches and more on ethnic and cultural practices such as
arranged marriage issues or caste system that were not mainly the real issues. Hall (1988)
argues that this was diverting attention away from institutional patterns of racism(Rowe,
2004).

In comparison to Scarman race relations training was also an essential part of Macpherson
plan. He suggested that there had been very less improvement in terms of race relations
training since Scarman's report as very little as done to recruit ethnic minority staff or
improve relations with ethnic communities via police training (O'Neill and Holdaway, 2007)

MacPherson

Although there have been various issues that may have challenged police service to
improve its training, one o the major factor was the Machperson Report.The
MacPherson Report (1999) highlighted issues of police relations with minority ethnic
communities. Since the Report the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and the
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and various other senior officers have publicly
accepted and stated that the police service is institutionally racist (GET
REFERENCE).Despite training provision introduced in the 1970s and developed in the 1980s
and 1990s, there were ongoing concerns regarding community and race relations. CRR
training was quite ineffective. This, therefore, led to an immediate review or racism
awareness training within police services by MacPherson. The HMIC (YEAR) suggested that
training regarding cultural issues has been marginalized.
However, Since the late 1990s due to the inquiry of the Stephen Lawrence case, there had
been quite a few changes which lead to series of "Inspections" on community and race
relations which were conducted by HIMIC. These inspections were held to monitor the
changes that were made within police service to deal with diversity issues. The main aim of
these inspections was to highlight any improvements that could be made within
constabularies to improve their ways of engaging with ethnic minorities. The winning
constabularies were awarded the title of "Winning the Race: Policing Plural Communities"
which not only underlined the weaknesses but also highlighted the good strategies taken by
police service to tackle race relations issues. Due to recommendations made by MacPherson
report, as well as the Race Relations Act 2000, The Race and Relations training was
introduced to make police staff more aware of the diverse culture and experiences of minority
groups. The main purpose of the new training was that the police officers within the training
the programmes were specifically taught to interact differently within men and women
among ethnic minority groups to respect their cultural and religious beliefs. This differed
from past training programmes as this focused on excluding unlawful racial discrimination
and promoting good relations between police service and ethnic communities. These changes
were essential to building a positive and strong relationship with ethnic communities.
Secondly, the main purpose of the Community Race Relation training was to change
officers’ attitude towards ethnic minorities. This was crucial to bring peace harmony in the
communities as well as a chance for officers to learn more about other cultures. Although
discriminatory behaviour, racist and homophobic language was quite common before
Stephen Lawrence inquiry, the report suggested that the inside behaviour reflected how the
police officers interacted with minorities. Therefore, it was crucial to guiding police officers
on how to interact with certain ethnic minorities to maintain peace and harmony. In addition
to this Liaison officers were also introduced to coordinate communication between ethnic
communities and police (reference needed). This was one of the ways to improve
communication as a step towards building trust and confidence between bothparties.
Furthermore, various new internal initiatives were introduced, following Macpherson Inquiry
which included training provided mainly focused on "race relations." These were entirely
different from previous ones as they focused specifically on issues such as how to prevent
racial discrimination, promote racial equality and promote good relations between members
of different ethnic groups. These courses and training are and have been quite useful for
police officers as it provided them with a clearer insight into different cultures and cultural
traditions which can help foster positive relationships between the police and communities as
officers learn how they should be dealing with diverse communities accordingly.

Effectiveness

Although we have seen these programmes for quite a few and now new various new courses,
have had been introduced but the main question is whether these programmes have been
affected or not. Although training strategies on racial issues were set out by the Police
Training Council Working Party in about 1983, those strategies have still not been entirely
carried out. Therefore this has a considerable effect on how ethnic minorities communities
are treated. Due to strategies not being carried out by Police service, this, therefore, can lead
to negative service provided to ethnic communities by police officers (Oakley, 1999)
.Regarding the effectiveness of diversity training Cashmore (YEAR) quoted two police
officers who stated that diversity training has did not change police officers. Similarly, the
Black Police Association BPA officers who revealed their involvement within diversity
training also reported that "middle managers tend to be the main problem due to their lack of
action" (REFERENCE). They argued that senior officers were not showing their real
leadership which was required for the success of diversity training. However, in contrast to
this Cashmore argued that some officers found the diversity training “flawless."They stated
that they saw “no room for improvements within this. Considering the point, BPA had
questioned the local civilians, and Cashmore was questioning the senior officers there is a
huge alteration between two responses. This is because the civilians are on the receiving end.
Therefore, they are more likely to have better knowledge however the trainee officers who
stated the training was "flawless" mainly train officers and therefore have no knowledge of
whether the trainee officers carry out their tasks properly (O'Neill and Holdaway, 2007) .The
changes in the training suggested that officers had then chosen suitable techniques to interact
with ethnic minorities which resulted in positive community relations between police and
ethnic minorities. Officers who attended those training courses were prepared to face
problems. The officers also suggested that these initiatives gave them better understand how
to tackle those crimes and how to handle certain situations. In comparison to officers who had
not improved community relations (Bhugowandeen, 2013). In contrast to this Although some
officers stated the training was “flawless," Cashmore highlighted that some officers stated
that diversity training has no impact on police officers. They stated that although it has been
in place for twenty years, it had no effect on racism within the training workforce at all. They
further suggested that middle officers who were mainly the trainers were the main issue as
they did not value diversity training which leads to lower ranks not paying much attention to
their training sessions. The lack of leadership and no interest in diversity training courses
signifies why institutional racism is still an issue and mainly why the ethnic minorities are
still being treated respectfully by officers (O'Neill and Holdaway, 2007) .The lack of
engagement with black and other minorities groups had a negative impact. This, therefore,
led to problems when achieving goals and addressing the issues faced in more deprived
neighbourhoods.

Furthermore, there were various other challenges in contemporary CRR training as it argued
that the training focused on the needs and experiences of police officers rather than the ethnic
minorities. This was seen through the curriculum design as well as the classroom
management environment. Both these aspects were crucial in order to train officers to deal
with ethnic issues however the curriculum, as well as the classroom environment, highlighted
the officers were not paying much attention to what was being taught. In addition to this,
some officers also thought that diversity training caused a massive issue as they argued that
due to staff being on training they did not have minimum officers to carry out the daily
duties. This, therefore, led to officers missing out the training to perform their primary roles
which harmed the training. Due to officers missing out on their training they had various
issues with the CRR training courses as they argued that many of the training officers were
not experienced and therefore only taught within their comfort zones to get through every
day. This was suggested by the trainee officers who expressed their view on the training they
were receiving. Trainee Officers argued that the officers did not discuss “thorny issues” such
as institutional racism which were most important and the main objective of the course. Hall
(1988) argued that officers focused on “information focus approach” to avoid conflict with
those that they are training. Hall further argued that the trainers were unable to discuss the
critical issues as they lacked support. Similarly, Luthra and Oakley (1991) explained that
racism awareness training was difficult as the content of the training programme did not
focus on and affect the institutional issues. They argued that although the training did not
embrace a confrontational approach it was quite clear that the training officers felt they were
racist.

Furthermore, there was also very little evidence that the training offered to police officers
addressed an issue relating to the field of policing. This was seen in two distinct ways.
Firstly, it was evident that nothing has been done to integrate the content of training sessions
into everyday working practices. Secondly, there was no opportunity for the content of
training to be further developed in the long term although these concerns do not affect the
trainers, who were unable to address the main issues. However, it does show an institutional
failure to develop an effective training strategy which could have been able to reshape the
organization. Similarly, national review by HMIC (2003) suggested that there were no long-
term plans to tackle diversity issues or to train officers on dealing with ethnic minorities. The
report indicated that this was due to lack of institutional strategy. The report further identified
various concerns. It argued that there was an absence of a systematic plan on how the service
should improve its CRR training and how to incorporate diversity issues into general training
programmes as they were not done before. They further stated that although it has been in
place for almost twenty years, it has not had any effect on the racism within the force. Chan
(1997) argues police officers are not "institutional clones"the trainees and new recruits do not
completely conform to the police culture as soon as they have joined however this does
change within the time. Therefore to reduce further racism within institutions and to treat
ethnic minorities appropriately it is crucial that these new recruits are trained from the
beginning. Although Chan argues that the new recruits look more up to the senior officer and
copy their behaviour but a study conducted by Chan (1997) on racism and reform suggests
police organisations play a huge role in "developing and transforming cultural. This,
therefore, suggests that reform initiatives should be sued to teach new recruits and help them
develop knowledge on how to deal with ethnic minorities. She further argues that this can
play a huge role in developing a police culture which can bring transformation(Brown, 2014).

Conclusion: Future of diversity training

Although there have been improvements made within the police training post MacPherson
Report on institutional report however evaluating the current evidence and effectiveness of
those measures one can argue that there has been lack of success over time. As highlighted
above there are various barriers to success although the police service has introduced new
initiatives to work with
Bibliography
Bhugowandeen, B. (2013). Diversity in the British police : adapting to a multicultural
society. Mémoire(s), identité(s), marginalité(s) dans le monde occidental contemporain, 10(10).

Brown, J. (2014). The future of policing. London: Routledge.

Cashmore, E. (2001). The experiences of ethnic minority police officers in Britain: under-
recruitment and racial profiling in a performance culture. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 24(4), pp.642-
659.

O'Neill, M. and Holdaway, S. (2007). Examining ‘Window Dressing’: The Views of Black Police
Associations on Recruitment and Training. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 33(3), pp.483-
500.

Oakley, R. (1999). Institutional Racism and the Police Service. The Police Journal: Theory, Practice
and Principles, 72(4), pp.285-295.

Rowe, M. (2004). Policing, race and racism. Cullompton, UK: Willan.