Recommendation 25

The Macpherson report was clear that police forces need to be representative of the communities they serve. Throughout our inquiry we have heard concerns about community confidence in the police, the use of certain police powers and wider racism in policing. These findings of racial disparities and the community concerns around them, in our view, are exacerbated by the lack of BME police officers and staff at all levels of police forces. The Peel principles that have underpinned British policing for nearly 200 years are based on the understanding that the police are the public and the public are the police. These principles apply to everyone: it cannot be the case that they apply to some communities and not others based on the colour of people’s skin. As long as police forces remain so unrepresentative of local communities these vital principles are being undermined.