Why community-led policing is so important (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Why community-led policing is so important

9:09am Thursday 6th July 2006

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Dr Abdul Bary Malik is a Justice of the Peace, President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association and founder and Chief Executive of Asian Disability Awareness Action in Bradford. Here he considers the relationship between Muslim communities and the police.

Recently, Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, spoke on the subject of the importance to recruit police officers from Muslim communities. He said current race laws needed to be changed not for just a matter of fairness and equality, but for an issue of national security. He also questioned whether UK's police and security services were "fit for purpose," and added that British Muslim communities were as committed to tackling terrorism as any one else.

However, the Secret Policeman undercover TV documentary which highlighted racism in the police force prompted the Association of Chief Police Officers to make the following statement on March 8, 2005, before the publication of the CRE's final report: "The police service has made real progress on issues such as the investigation of racist crime, with a significant increase in the number of convictions and in the work carried out to strengthen community relations and cohesion after September 11. Only our harshest critics would fail to acknowledge the progress made since the Stephen Lawrence case.

"Ethnic minority communities are not asking for special treatment from the police service. They want to be protected from crime, disorder and harassment, they want a professional standard of service, officers known and visible to local people and a service that keeps its promises.

"The creation of long-term trust between police and local communities, however, will only come from establishing clear standards of service and delivering them on those standards."

However, this could lead to the local community having an influence over the policing in their area and a possibility of police officers to work according to local people's agendas.

The statement of the Association of Chief Police Officers points out that: "There is a very strong moral case for the police to increase the trust of minority communities in particular. These communities are more likely to be affected by crime and harassment and so deserve police protection. There is a strong moral and ethical case for police powers to be used proportionately and within the law and must be open to independent scrutiny.

This very nicely sums up the importance of community-led policing while respecting the cultural and religious sensitivities of every community. The United Kingdom is a multi-cultural and multi-faith society in every aspect of life, therefore it is important that this diversity is also reflected among the ranks of every public body including the police service.

The war against terrorism can only be won when we are all united against the evil of our times. For this purpose police forces need support from Muslim communities, and that support is available as the majority of Muslims as any other community are against any form of terrorism.

But wrong operations and arrests as a result of loose and unreliable intelligence like the one in Forest Gate last month create anger, unease, mistrust and divisions between police and communities. We can only remove this mistrust and alienation by attracting more officers from ethnic communities while maintaining high standards.

Here in Bradford the area of police recruitment demonstrates the value of the Minority Police Liaison Committee best. The committee took part in focus groups and research activities that showed the increase in number of applicants to West Yorkshire Police from nine to 15 per cent.

Between 2001 and 2003 the committee delivered a £250,000 programme across Bradford and Keighley in order to encourage people from ethnic communities to join the police force. They targeted families and young people. Some of the events they organised attracted more than 200 young people from Bradford's ethnic communities.

This has definitely been a positive move to promote equal opportunities for ethnic community people in the police force. As a result of this many young officers from ethnic community backgrounds are now serving in West Yorkshire Police because of the dedicated work of the Minority Police Liaison Committee. "Positive discrimination" might be the answer for equal opportunities for some, but "positive action" to prove racial equality is better than the former and attracts a better response from the local community.

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