Sectoral guidance: criminal justice 

On this page

• Your role
  
• Promoting good race relations: dos and don’ts
  
• Your organisation
  
• Working in partnership
  
• The role of local criminal justice boards
  
• Special constables, police community support officers, and neighbourhood wardens
  

Your role

As dispensers of justice, criminal justice agencies have a special responsibility to be seen to be just and fair in the way you carry out their functions. How you approach the question of racial equality and meet your duties has the power to profoundly affect people’s lives.

Promoting good race relations: dos and don’ts

The following points will be useful for the whole criminal justice system, using the police service as a case study. Additional guidance for specific agencies is also provided, where this is not applicable generally.

Do:

• Make that your race equality scheme addresses the duty to promote good race relations, and provide adequate resources to carry out all requirements.
• Work in partnership with other public authorities and voluntary and community organisations to create a safe environment for everyone.
• Treat people from all racial groups – whether as victims, suspects or in any other capacity – fairly and equally, with respect for their cultural or religious identity, and in accordance with their legal and human rights.
• Consider the effects that operational decisions made by your authority may have on relations between racial or cultural groups locally, and take appropriate steps to avoid any adverse effect.
• Respond effectively to racist incidents and anti-social behaviour, using legal powers appropriately, and working with other agencies to prevent such incidents.
• Monitor racial tensions and extremist political activity, and take action to resolve problems, using your legal powers sensitively and effectively.
• Build trust and confidence in the police, by consulting people from all racial groups, acknowledging concerns, publicising achievements, promoting dialogue and cooperation, and by acknowledging and addressing shortcomings.
• Provide clear positive leadership locally on how to promote good race relations.
• Make sure that all operational and civilian staff are fully consulted on, and are supportive of, policies to promote equality of opportunity and good race relations, including the use of positive action measures, where appropriate.
• Deal with complaints of discrimination and harassment from staff or members of the public speedily, and notify them of the outcomes of action taken.

Crown Prosecution Service:

• Take the element of racism fully into account when deciding whether to prosecute, and select appropriate charges to reflect the element of racism.
• Liaise with police to make sure evidence relevant to the above is obtained and presented in court.
• Inform victims of racist crimes about prosecution decisions.

Prisons:

• Promote cooperation and good relations between prisoners of all racial groups.
• Treat prisoners from all racial groups fairly and equally, respecting their cultural and religious diversity, and making provision for any cultural and religious needs.
• Respond effectively to and deal with racist incidents or racial tensions between prisoners from different racial groups, or between prisoners and staff from different racial groups.
• Respond effectively to and deal with any complaints of a racial nature from prisoners or staff.
• Make sure that prisoners from all racial groups have equal access to services.

Probation:

• Make services accessible to clients from all racial groups, fairly and equally, and with respect for their diverse backgrounds and needs.
• Work with those convicted of racist offences to help to prevent re-offence, and cooperate with other agencies to achieve this.

Don’t:

• Fail to address in your race equality scheme the duty to promote good race relations, or to provide adequate resources to ensure delivery.
• Fail to use your legal and operational powers to tackle racist incidents and the activities of racist organisations effectively.
• Fail to identify or respond effectively to tensions and conflicts between local racial groups, and ignore local sensitivities on racial issues, including any past history of racial incidents, or relations between particular racial groups and the police.
• Use police powers, such as stop and search, disproportionately against people from certain racial groups and without apparent justification.
• Use disproportionate and unjustifiable force against people from certain racial groups.
• Show disregard or disrespect for cultural and religious issues when carrying out interventions in domestic or community settings.
• Respond defensively to criticism on racial issues.
• Fail to make all staff are fully consulted on, and are involved in, the development of policies to promote equality of opportunity and good race relations.
• Fail to treat staff from particular racial groups fairly and equally in the workplace, or respond to complaints of harassment.

Your organisation

The role of police authorities

Police authorities provide a form of local accountability for police forces. Their main statutory duty is to oversee the running of an efficient and effective police force in their area. Their functions include monitoring police performance against annual policing plans, and police responses to public complaints; holding the police budget; consulting on local policing priorities; appointing senior officers; and operating independent custody visiting schemes.

Police authorities, like police forces, are bound by both the general duty and the specific duties under the Race Relations Act 1976, so you should follow the guidance provided here for all criminal justice agencies. In addition, you should make sure the promotion of good race relations is given due consideration in carrying out the functions listed above.

Police authorities are not directly responsible for the operational aspects of policing; this lies with the chief constable. However, you should request a formal report from the chief constable, or carry out your own inquiries, if there is public concern that a policing policy is harming good race relations. Police authorities also have an important role to play in monitoring forces’ race equality schemes, and should receive regular reports on the progress forces are making in putting their schemes into practice, including actions to promote good race relations.

Working in partnership

• To promote good race relations effectively, criminal justice agencies need to work in a coordinated way, and where appropriate through formal partnerships.
• Local criminal justice boards can provide an overall framework within which you can create a joint vision, coordinate activities, share experiences, and monitor outcomes.
• Statutory crime and disorder reduction partnerships can help you to coordinate work on community safety issues affecting particular racial groups or relating to racist crime.
• Racist incident panels (or equivalent structures) should be set up to coordinate responses to racist crime and racial harassment by criminal justice and other local agencies.
• Specific partnerships should be set up to respond to locally-identified needs, and to undertake particular projects, and should include other public authorities and the voluntary and community sector, where appropriate.
• Partners should share responsibilities as far as possible, and should consider rotating the role of ‘chair’ among the main partners.
• Criminal justice agencies should develop shared good race relations outcomes, with common ways of measuring achievements and methods for collecting data, wherever possible.

The role of local criminal justice boards

Local criminal justice boards were established in 2003 following the government White Paper, Justice for All, to improve coordination between agencies. They bring together chief officers from the police, crown prosecution service, probation service, magistrates and crown courts, and senior representatives from the prison service and youth offending teams. One of their key public service agreement targets is to increase public confidence in the criminal justice system, especially among people from ethnic minorities.

Special constables, police community support officers, and neighbourhood wardens

These posts can provide important opportunities to improve good race relations between the police and the local community. Neighbourhood wardens who are employed by local authorities can help policing teams to identify local problems and respond before they escalate into more serious incidents.