Police Under Fire from Lawrence and Filkin

The police forces are facing scrutiny this week with the release of the Filkin report that comments upon the sometimes over friendly relationships that have built up with the national press and the dredging up of past mistakes and the continuing problem of race representation in the force in the wake of the trial for the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

On the 22nd April 1993 Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death as he walked with his friend trying to get a bus in South East London. The gang of five or six white teenagers that killed him did so without provocation in what has been judged a racist attack, they stabbed Lawrence twice in the torso to a depth of 5 inches and let him stagger 120 metres before he collapsed to the pavement.

At the time police faced criticism for their handling of the case in which they made many blunders and failed to deal with the backdrop of race effectively. When police first appeared on the scene it appeared as if they saw the killing as simply another gangland fracas. Stephen Lawrence was left bleeding on the pavement while the police officers attempted to arrest and interrogate his friend.

The police forces also failed to follow up a number of anonymous tip-offs they were sent in the aftermath of the killing. In the inquiry it was revealed that many people that had given evidence never saw their information reproduced by the police. One of the more shocking errors was when only four days after the murder when the police were performing surveillance on the Acourt’s house and failed to act when someone left the house carrying what was probably a binliner filled with the clothes they had been wearing during the murder.

In 2006 an IPCC inquiry was set up after a BBC investigation alleged that one of the senior officers in charge of the case, Det. Sgt. John Davidson, was taking bribes from Clifford Norris, known drug smuggler and father of chief suspect David Norris. The BBC’s source, a former corrupt police officer turned whistle-blower said "Davidson told me that he was looking after Norris and that to me meant that he was protecting him, protecting his family against arrest and any conviction,” The IPCC investigation found that the BBC’s claims were unfounded but such allegations further discredited the catastrophically mis-managed investigation.

But after 6 failed investigations it was new technology and techniques that led to the arrest and prosecution of Gary Dobson and David Norris this week. The forensic team took a low powered microscope to the clothing that had been recovered from the suspects and managed to find minute traces of Lawrence’s blood, with this they could finally charge two of the five members of the gang present that night. The pair were given minimum sentences of 14 to 15 years for their part in the crime, a reduced sentence to represent the fact that they were minors at the time of the offence.

The most lasting legacy of Stephen Lawrence’s murder was the Macpherson Inquiry which eventually found the force institutionally racist and incompetent.savaged the police force, MacPherson criticised the police for failing to take on board suggestions from the report into the Brixton race riots and diffuse the tensions between them and the black community. Seventy suggestions were made to the top officials as to how the problems arising from the Lawrence case could be mitigated in the future.

Whereas many of the more overt forms of racism have been eliminated, there is very little name calling or racial abuse still present in the police, more insidious forms of racism are still prevalent. Stop and search is one of the major contributors to the feeling of many black communities that they are being unfairly treated. Research by Newsnight found that stop and searches under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act target black people as a 35.5% majority, these checks require some suggestion of wrongdoing to authorise them. Section 60 laws, brought in to tackle football violence, do not require reasonable grounds for suspicion and 48% of these random searches were brought against black people. In the borough of Haringey 6000 stop and searches take place and only one in 10 lead to an arrest.

The police force’s complacency towards race extends yet further as it is clear that targets to bring more black officers into the force have failed. By the end of the Lawrence Inquiry there were four black officers at the most senior levels, by 2008 there were nine but none remain now.

Even at the lower levels there has been little progress in achieving ethnic diversity in our police force. In 2009 the Met presented the figure that there had been a 7% increase in the numbers of recruits from black backgrounds and took this as success in meeting the targets proposed by Macpherson. However there appears to be some massaging of the figures as the new recruits include CPSO’s who are not full police officers. The real rate is more like 2% to 4% and there are no available statistics to show whether black recruits are actually staying with the police force and rising through the ranks.

The Met and the police force in general are also facing criticism from the Filkin report that looked into undue closeness between the police and journalists after the phone hacking scandal. Inspector Roger Baker, who led the review, told the BBC: "While we found no evidence of endemic corruption in police service relationships, we did find significant variations between forces and authorities in how they defined what is acceptable and what is not. This inconsistency made little sense to us and nor do we believe would it to the general public.”

Some working within the media have criticised the report saying that ties between police and journalists can provide a valuable service and can help to solve cases. This is especially relevant considering much of the attention surrounding the Stephen Lawrence case came about through the Daily Mail’s reporting, largely because the Editor Paul Dacre employed Lawrence’s father as a painter and decorator.

The report suggests that all conversations with journalists should be recorded to ensure that there can be full accountability. Considering the misinformation surrounding the Mark Duggan case when an unnamed IPCC source told the media that there had been a “shootout” between Mark and the police these proposals should surely hold some weight.

The police perform a difficult job in the highest of stress situations and mistakes are sure to be made, but if justice is going to be served in this country then we need robust systems in place to deal with those mistakes. The spotlight being shone on the police at the moment may not be pleasant, but we can at least hope that some benefit comes from it.

Photo from Freefoto.com