Policing racist incidents: Attitudes and experiences of the Police Service of Northern Ireland

Police management improvements in tackling racism must filter down to frontline staff.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has introduced a number of initiatives and tools to improve the policing of racist incidents. This study by Dr Tina Patel looked at the experiences of both managers and front-line officers in dealing with racialised crimes.

The project found that senior managers had considered anti-racist policing tools seriously, but this had not always filtered down to operational level. Key messages include:

• Police operations could benefit from more cultural diversity training to all officers that is grounded in real policy and practice experience.
• Training needs to be able to challenge stereotypes, particularly about newer economic migrants, in order to improve police-community relations and intelligence.
• Services need to monitor the effectiveness of policies and training in policing racist incidents to eradicate a clear gap between policy and practice.