AVON and Somerset Police is institutionally racist.

That is the view of the force’s Chief Constable, Sarah Crew, who has vowed to turn it into an ‘anti-racist police service’.

Her comments come a year after a report – Identifying Disproportionality in the Avon and Somerset Criminal Justice System – by Desmond Brown, an advocate for racial justice and chair of the region’s Lammy Group.

The report highlighted differences in the treatment of people from ethnic and racial backgrounds and made a number of recommendations to improve the force’s approach.

Now, Chief Constable Crew has released an update on steps she has been and is taking to address the issue.

She wrote: “For some time now at Avon and Somerset Police, we’ve been discussing how we truly become an anti-racist police service.

“The conversations have been compelling and inspiring and have helped us focus on the courageous steps we must take to turn this ambition into a reality.

“A little over a year ago, Desmond Brown published his report ‘Identifying Disproportionality in the Avon and Somerset Criminal Justice System’, which showed clear evidence of differential experiences in the way we interact with people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, particularly those who are from Black heritage communities.

“Since then, we’ve been carefully working through Desmond’s recommendations and ensuring those lessons form a key part of our developing Race Action Plan.

Desmond Brown

“Baroness Casey’s review into the Metropolitan Police, published in March, was another catalyst for us to examine ourselves.

“It’s been a stark reminder for policing as a whole that the need for real and profound change is essential if we’re to retain the public’s trust and confidence.

“I recognise the issues around race, sexism and homophobia at Avon and Somerset Police. Perhaps not as stark as we’ve seen elsewhere, but they are here none-the-less.

“Since the publication of the review, I’ve been encouraging conversations and debate within my organisation, more specifically around institutional racism.

“When it comes to race, I’m in no doubt that, by Baroness Casey’s criteria at least, Avon and Somerset Police is institutionally racist.

“The Casey Review set four tests on institutional racism:

* There are racists and people with racist attitudes within the organisation.
* Staff and officers from Black heritage and ethnically/racially minoritised backgrounds experience racism at work and it is routinely ignored, dismissed, or not spoken about.
* Racism and racial bias are reinforced within systems.
* The force under-protects and over-polices Black heritage people.

“I must accept that the definition fits. I think it’s likely to be true for misogyny, homophobia, and disability as well, though the gaps in the data don’t give us the sense of scale, impact, or certainty that we have for race.

“I need to be clear: I’m not talking about what’s in the hearts and minds of most people who work for Avon and Somerset Police.

“This is about recognising the structural and institutional barriers that exist and which put people at a disadvantage in the way they interact with policing because of their race.

“Not being racist is no longer good enough, not for me and not for any of us. It is no longer okay to be a bystander and do nothing; to be part of a system that disadvantages one group of people over another.

“As for the few who do demonstrate attitudes and behaviours which are racist or discriminatory, we remain on a mission to root them out – they shouldn’t be in policing, and we don’t want them here.”

She added: “What drew me into policing was the fight against injustice and unfairness. Sitting and looking across an unfair system. I think that’s why I, and most of the people I work with, are all about fighting it.

“It’s important to say it’s not about labelling every single individual who works in policing as a racist. What it is, is a recognition that the system is unfair and our job, is to make it fair.

“People talk about these words as labels, or rhetoric, or semantics. It’s just accepting reality for me, it’s just common sense. Accept it and say sorry.

“We need the trust and confidence of our communities to do policing well. If we can rebuild that confidence by taking this step – more people report crime, more people give us intelligence – when those things happen, we start to do a really good job at policing and keeping our communities safe.

“For those who think this is woke’ism or political correctness – for me it’s not – it’s just common sense, core, fundamental, pure policing.

“That fear… I think we need to get over that and think about where the comfort needs to be given. What we can do is say we recognise, we hear you, we see you. We’re sorry.

“But we want to do better, and we want to do that together.”