Race Equality 

In the 1993 Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racially motivated attack. No-one was brought to justice for this crime. In the report from the public inquiry that followed, Sir William Macpherson highlighted and defined “institutional racism”.

“The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin which can be seen or detected in processes; attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people." The Macpherson Report

The inquiry led to a significant change in the law in 2000.

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 was quite a departure from previous equality legislation. This was the first piece of equality legislation to put a positive duty on to public bodies to prove that they were not discriminatory, and to ensure that they actively promote equality throughout the delivery of their services.

For North Wales Police Authority a key aspect of this legislation is that we are required to have a Race Equality Scheme. Our scheme details how we are meeting our duties to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination, promote equal opportunities and promote good race relations.

The impact of the Act on our organisation has been far-reaching; discrimination is no longer dealt with in a piecemeal way, relying on individuals to point out problems and unfairness; we are now obliged to provide evidence as to how we act positively to promote race equality and good race relations.