New research has found that only 36 per cent of Black children and teenagers trust the police compared with 75 per cent of young White people.
The trust figure for Black people aged ten to 18 was the lowest of any ethnic group and was even lower among Black Caribbean children.
in a report Forgotten Voices, less than a quarter of Black children and teenagers questioned for the poll said they trusted police to stop and search them fairly and fewer than one in five trusted officers to treat people from different backgrounds fairly.
The survey also suggests young Black people are less likely to call the police if they are in danger than those who are White or Black adults.
This research is the second of three reports, funded by the Hadley Trust, and considers children’s experiences and views of policing and stop-and-search.
The first study, published in November, focused on adults. It found that despite support for the principle of stop-and-search, there were deep misgivings among Black adults about the way the powers were used and how they were treated by police, in general.
In focus groups, conducted alongside the latest survey, Black and mixed ethnicity children said they wanted to trust the police but felt unable to do so because of negative interactions they or people close to them had experienced or viewed online.
One young teenager said: “There’s almost like an arrogance in the police. And it’s almost like, we’re going to, we don’t have to talk to you properly, we’re going to talk at you, not to you. Sometimes it’s almost like a wind up as well.”
Another child told researchers: “People who live in the nice houses, they think the police are there to protect them. People who live in the ghetto are mostly thinking that the police are out to get them. They know that they’re gonna get stopped.”
Crest Advisory Chief Executive Harvey Redgrave said:
“Our findings suggest that children and teenagers have conflicting views on the police and the trust they can place in them. The most alarming results from our survey are that levels of trust are much lower among young Black people, particularly those from Black Caribbean backgrounds.
“Contentious examples of racism and discrimination within policing, alongside the use of police powers, such as stop-and-search, were cited by children across the focus groups as reasons why their trust in the police had declined. These children now felt unsure as to whether they could truly trust the police,” he said.
