A new online survey has revealed how ethnic minority groups in the UK feel the police may have been biased against people from their background.
The online survey, conducted by Hope not hate Charitable Trust, found that four in five people from Bangladeshi heritage feel that the police are biased against people from their ethnicity while around half of people from Indian heritage taking part also felt this way.
75% of Bangladeshi participants in the survey felt that ethnic minorities were dealt with more harshly by the court system, while 53% of Indian participants also agreed.
However, a majority of participants from all ethnicities taking part in the survey believe that the police, in general, provide a good service and that any systemic problems lie with a few individuals. (63%).
Younger people in the study were also more inclined to be sceptical of the police. 55% of participants from BAME heritage aged between 16-24 believe the police provide a good service compared to 81% of those aged over 65.
Further figures showed that 72% of all respondents agree that Black and Asian people face discrimination in their everyday lives.
Breakdowns in what participants valued most also revealed that a third of respondents said their religion is the most important part of their identity, followed by their nationality (22%), their ethnicity (15%) and the country they were born in (12%).
The statistics for the study, Minority Communities in the time of COVID and Protest, were gathered from a weighted sample of 1,000 participants from adults aged over 18 from BAME backgrounds.
Detective Inspector Andy George, Interim President, The National Black Police Association said: “The National Black Police Association welcomes the results of the survey recently conducted by HOPE not Hate charitable trust which confirms our current concerns on trust and confidence in the UK policing within Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.
We recognise that policing needs to understand each community has differing needs and experiences of policing. Building strong relationships with ethnic minority communities makes us more likely to understand new and emerging crimes in the community and more likely to receive community intelligence which will allow us to target those causing the most harm in the community.
Now is the time to acknowledge the evidence produced in this report and build long term strategies to increase trust and confidence in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.”
Further information on Hope not Hate’s study, and further studies, can be found on their website here: https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/#
