Revealed: police chiefs to apologise for racism

Police chiefs are to declare they are “ashamed” and will apologise “for racism, discrimination and bias” still plaguing law enforcement, the Guardian has learned.

- Vikram Dodd

In their new race plan, to be launch ed on Tuesday, police leaders will avoid admitting institutional racism – which critics brand a failure that could doom the promised reforms.

The plan from the National Police Chiefs Council and College of Policing will instead commit to be being “institutionally anti-racist”, and aim to start winning back the confidence of black people, which among those of black Caribbean ethnicity is 20% lower than the national average.

They vow to end treatment that black people find “stigmatising and humiliating” and will say: “We accept policing still contains racism, discrimination and bias. We are ashamed of those truths, we apologise for them and we are determined to change them. ”

The plan by police chiefs from England and Wales – running to more than 50 pages – follows months of intense and at times bitter discussions. It was triggered by the mass protests following the murder of George Floyd in the US by a police officer, and will be published a day before the second anniversary of Floyd’s death. 

The document and the planned reforms come after decades of promises by UK policing to stamp out racism in the ranks.

In 1999, policing was declared to be institutionally racist by the Macpherson inquiry into the police blunders that allowed the racist murderers of Stephen Lawrence to escape justice . Policing has in large parts, and in the Met police especially, declared that label no longer applies.