No UK police force is institutionally racist, says Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Stephen Watson in a wide ranging interview earlier today on LBC
He said that the problem with the phrase was that “it is also being applied by different people in different contexts across the board”.
He added that it was unclear as to what [institutional racism] means but said that he did think there is a grave danger of almost reaching for a rigid interpretation of a well thought out definition.
“The public will understandably take the view that if you say we’re institutionally this, that or the other, then that means as an organisation we either genuinely don’t care, we genuinely don’t find that behaviours of the sort described are somehow inimicable to our values or at best we’re just too incompetent to sort it out.”
Mr Watson continued: “I think it possible that a police force could be institutionally racist but I just don’t think that applies to any of the UK police forces.”
Watson also told the programme that “We have people in our ranks who ought no to be there, who conduct themselves in a racist and homophobic way. We need to draw the distinction between those who let the side down, and the mass”
On the subject of pay he told listeners “We do not do strikes in the police service, I do not want to lead a service which has any of those things”
But added:
“I understand the Federation case. There has been a degradation in police officer pay over time. I know that because of a lot of bad news, ours is probably not the most popular cause, but we want to attract high quality people”
He praised Andy Burnham’s role in the region saying that “I’m blessed with great support from the mayor. He stands absolutely with GMP. They are supportive of the efforts and the increase in stop and search”
On the subject of grooming gangs “I’m not sure I would agree this is religious. It is a straightforward set of predators”
“I’m not one to pussyfoot around this, the people who will target in Manchester are predominantly British Pakistani, online they are often white”
He said that to the best of his knowledge To grooming is not happening in the way that it was. “
If it’s happening at all, they will be isolated cases” but vowed that “We will hunt people down” when asked if he will seek to bring British Pakistani grooming gang victims back to the UK
While on the subject of Golliwogs and asked Does it take five police officers to arrest a publican with ‘golly-dolls’?”
“I’m nervous about commenting about it because I don’t know what happened there. On the face of if, one has to assume, that it sounds a wee bit over the top” adding that he wouldn’t support it from GMP
