3 days ago
PSNI launches plan to build trust with ethnic minorities
The PSNI has launched a plan to build greater trust with black and ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland.
It comes against a backdrop of a rising number of racially motivated attacks and two summers of racist rioting as well as criticism of previous policing operations.
Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said the plan was intended to "build trust, promote equality and improve engagement" with ethnic minority communities across Northern Ireland.
Among the commitments in the plan is to make people from an ethnic minority background feel safe and valued.
There is also a pledge that the PSNI will be an "anti-racist" service that values its own officers and staff from those communities.
According to the latest PSNI statistics there were 1,188 racially motivated hate crimes in 2023/24, the highest number since records were first recorded twenty years ago.
Mr Boutcher said recent events, locally and globally, had brought the challenges faced by Black and Ethnic Minority communities to the fore.
"Public confidence in the police, especially among those communities has been impacted by historical injustices, disparities in policing outcomes and a perception of bias within our system.
"It is our responsibility to not only recognise these concerns, but to actively address them."
The PSNI has faced criticism in the past over how it has policed members of ethnic minority communities.
In 2020, it was heavily criticised for how it handled peaceful Black Lives Matter protests in Belfast and Derry following the murder of George Floyd by a US police officer.
An investigation found its approach had been unfair and discriminatory.
In 2023, there was criticism of how it dealt with a series of racially motivated arson attacks on homes of members of ethnic minority communities.
The plan launched today states that the PSNI will try to make its officers more representative of the community they police.
Less than 1% of PSNI officers come from an ethnic minority background.
Census figures show Northern Ireland has around 3.45% of people from an ethnic minority background.
The biggest group is those of mixed ethnicity, followed by people from the Indian, Chinese and black African communities.
The policing plan includes more training for officers, better recruitment, retention and promotion policies, improved public engagement, robust pursuit of hate crimes perpetrators and the setting of measurable targets.
Takura Makoni of the African and Caribbean Support Organisation welcomed the new police plan and said all his community asked for was to be treated the same as everyone else.
"We want to be able to pick up a phone, call the police and be responded to, treated with respect. When you are a victim, not to be treated like a suspect.
"I think anybody on this island has the same expectations."
Businessman Rhami Akyol whose Belfast café was attacked during racist rioting last summer said having failed to initially protect his premises, the PSNI had followed up regularly in an attempt to reassure him.
Mr Akyol, who is of Kurdish origin and from Turkey, has lived in Northern Ireland for 30 years.
He said he believed the growth of social media and a lack of police resources was a big part of the problem.
"I don't believe they have enough police officers. For some incidents what happens is that when we call them, it takes them time to come.
"So I believe first government has to sort out giving more jobs to police officers."
The PSNI currently has around 6,300 officers, the lowest in its history, and Mr Boutcher has consistently complained of a budget shortfall that is impeding his ability to provide a proper policing service.
The chief constable is recruiting 700 more officers, but that would still leave him below the 7,500 envisaged when the service replaced the former RUC.
The Stormont Executive has yet to deliver on the promised cash to pay for that recruitment.
