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BBC Radio 4 - Black and Blue

Is racism on the rise in British policing? Hugh Muir investigates.

Journalist Hugh Muir meets black and minority ethnic police officers to find out whether claims that racism is on the rise within policing in Britain are justified.

Hugh Muir has spent much of his journalistic career chronicling the working lives of Britain’s black and minority ethnic police officers. In this programme, he investigates claims that racism is on the rise within policing in the UK.

In 1990, the Met acknowledged that it had a problem holding on to its black officers and decided to ask black and Asian staff why so many of them were leaving. Almost all the force’s black police officers attended a two-day meeting at the then Bristol Polytechnic that summer. They had no choice - it was mandatory. The officers all shared experiences of racist ‘banter’ and other mistreatment they had suffered on the job. Many found it therapeutic. 

However, 30 years on from the ‘Bristol meeting’, black officers say that despite some initial improvements, not much has changed. Some even contend that racism within policing got worse. And since the backlash that followed the killing of George Floyd last year, black officers now face growing hostility from outside as well as from within. 

For this programme, Hugh has spoken to several black and minority ethnic officers, both serving and retired. They include Andrew George, President of the National Black Police Association, and retired superintendent Leroy Logan, whose life story was recently adapted for the screen by the Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen in his film anthology Small Axe.

“I think black cops deserve more internal and external support as the key to making the real progress we all say we want,” Hugh says.

Produced by George Luke
A Cast Iron Radio production for BBC Radio 4

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