Does Our Culture Create Racist Police Officers?

This image has haunted for me for the past few days, yet I decided to stay silent for fear of creating yet more panic but I realise that more damage is done by staying silent than speaking out.

As someone who has spent his entire adult life serving the community as a police officer and a person of colour (joining when this was still a rare thing) It hurts me to the core to see such inhumane treatment of another by police officers who were sworn to protect others.

I know many of former and existing colleagues that will feel equal revulsion for what has happened here and these people should face the full weight of the law in this case.

Yet, let's not forget that they felt it was okay to behave in this way. Collectively and individually, in broad daylight, on a busy street, they thought they had the licence to do this.

The simple answer is 'NO!!' As a police officer, someone in a position of great responsibility or even a member of society this is against the fundamental values of community.

Yet, they felt it was okay. Why? Was a there a pervading culture in that police force that gave them is ill-founded confidence? Is it just in this police force or just in the USA? We would like to believe that this doesn't happen in the UK but we have seen innumerable cases where we have got it wrong.

Joining in the UK police service in the early 1980s, being posted to a white mining community, life back then was very lonely. Our culture was nowhere as enlightened as it is now in the UK. I have experienced overt racism long before high profile cases, such as Stephen Lawrence highlighted the concept of institutional racism and unconscious bias. I was the founder member of the Black Police Association and Vice President of the National Black Police Association.

I was honoured to sit on the Stephen Lawrence Board. I have met with Home Secretaries to help develop new policies to create equal quality of policing across all communities. And it improved things for a time.

Each time we have a high profile case we race to improve our policies and strategies. We look to inform our staff and change behaviour.

Yet, we all know that this change cannot happen overnight. I have heard many a time the phrase that 'diversity is a golden thread' yet we quickly move our attention away from it as soon as things seem to improve or when budgets are tightened.

The truth, however, is that the police or, for that matter any other organisation that employs staff or impacts upon communities, cannot allow for complacency to take hold. Diversity is constant and continuously changing in this globalise and VUCA (volatile, complex, uncertainty and ambiguous). In fact, recent history has shown to us that the rate of change in the world is increasing not slowing down. Those resistant to change will struggle but positive change has to be fully embraced.

In diversity circles I hear terms such as 'unconscious bias' or 'micro-aggression' but the truth is that all organisations are made up people and all people bring with them their conditioned beliefs and viewpoints. This case demonstrates not unconscious bias but fully aware, experienced officers who went against policies and training to behave the way that they did. This was not an act of 'micro-aggression' but overt aggression which led to the mindless loss of a life. They went against their oaths as police officers. It is inexcusable and a breaking of trust with our communities and with the majority of professional, responsible police officers across the world who are following a vocation to serve and protect their communities.

This is also not an isolated incident. It is happening at differing levels across the world. It is not singularly a police issue but a societal menace to the decent norms of the majority.

I'm honoured to work with many organisations, including police forces, who recognise the need to keep the foot on the pedal when it comes to creating empowered and equal cultures. They understand the importance of emotionally-intelligent leaders and empathy to drive the organisations forward ethically to the benefit of all, not a privileged majority group.

The George Floyd incident is a stark reminder to us all, across all sectors of society that our mission to create equal and respectful societies is far from over. We need to do everything we can to root out discrimination in any form, to create organisational cultures that are based around love - love for what we do and love for our fellow humans. It requires the very best of leadership and strong emotional intelligence at the core of everything we do.

Kul Mahay is a former Police Superintendent and now works with organisations to create emotionally-intelligent leaders and cultures.He has worked across all sectors, including police services and public sector organisations, through a number of universities.

To contact Kul: Email: [email protected] Tel: (0044) 7773 324924