Beyond Macpherson - Policing Diversity a Different Approach Event

 The police service in the United Kingdom has approached the issue of policing a multicultural society by making it more complex than it should be. The seminar builds on existing research and suggests that what is required is a set of ethical principles that apply to all policing policy and practice. To achieve any progress in this area it will be necessary to re-think the whole area of race and diversity policy and practice. If UK policing continues down a path that highlights difference as the prime policing consideration, it will significantly undermine police officers confidence in policing all communities.

Ruwan Uderwerage-Perera is a former police officer and a past General Secretary of the National Black Police Association, He was the Policing Diverse Communities Manager for the National Policing Improvement Agency and an adviser on equality and diversity issues for the National Centre for Policing Excellence. As part of a small team, tasked by the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Home Office, he researched the police response to the disorders of 2001, which resulted in the publication of national guidance on Community Cohesion Policing. Now retired from the police service, Ruwan is still actively involved in all aspects of developing equality and diversity and greater community engagement within both the voluntary and public sectors at regional and local levels. He is currently an advisor on diversity to the Liberal Democrat Party.

Phil Palmer is the Co Director of the Institute of Criminal Justice Research at the University of Southampton. He has over 30 years of policing experience. His previous posts include Head of Police Operations at the National Crime and Operations Faculty and Head of Public Protection at the National Centre of Policing. In 2000 he was appointed as Visiting Professor of Policing at John Jay College, City University of New York. He has also been a member of several Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) Committees.