The Paul McKeever Scholarship and Diversity…

Having spent the last few blogs talking about how research may be used in the day to day business of policing, I thought I would digress slightly and discuss  the Paul McKeever Scholarship and provide some detail of the subjects being studied by the successful students. I myself will be studying the sleeping giant that is diversity, so I would like to have a walk through the issues there and impart to you some of my thoughts. As usual, I would welcome any comment or feedback.

This is the inaugural year of the Paul McKeever Scholarship, and one which will hopefully set some precedent for the coming years. There are 7 students on the scholarship, which is organised and run by Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU). CCCU has a long history of collaboration with the Police both in relation to teaching and research. CCCU were recently successful in gaining funding from the College of Policing to research crime analysis and the links with academia, they are currently involved in the evaluation of predictive policing options being trialled in the MPS and have also been a key player for many years in the police and HE (Higher Education) forum, which has strong links with the College of Policing. The University also offers a BSc Policing programme (in service for anyone interested) specifically aimed at serving officers and members of police staff. It is because of all this work in the Policing realm, that the Metropolitan Police Federation decided to develop the Paul McKeever scholarship to fund relevant research projects. The findings of these projects will hopefully assist them in providing an evidence base on issues affecting their members.

The subjects that the students are studying are:

Training within the Police – specifically the efficacy/value of NCALT.

Diversity – With reference to the use of quotas to solve the ‘problem’ of representation.

Evidence Based Policing

Retention

Morale

The impact of cuts on specialist roles within policing

Fairness (gender issues)

The research will be used to assist and inform decision making in the MPS and additionally it is hoped that the research will also facilitate discussion at a national level both around issues impacting policing and more generally across the country.

With regards to my subject of diversity, the specific area being explored concerns whether recruitment quotas of BAME (Black, Asian, MInority, Ethnic) candidates actually help to solve the problems of representation within the Police. The default position always is – and has been for some time – that higher numbers of BAME candidates will assist with a cultural change within the organisation and lead to greater trust in the BAME communities. I will be investigating this presumed link, as there are some serious questions around the assumption that higher numbers of BAME candidates will go some way to help solve the larger problem of trust within communities.

On the face of the numbers, the current statistics from the last census indicate that approximately 80% of the UK population is classed as ‘White British’ (link here),whilst 95% of the UK Police force is ‘White British.’ (link here) This 15% gap is the focus of the use of recruitment quotas (read ‘targets’), with a discerned move towards removing it. It has been presumed that closing this gap will solve the problem of ‘representation.’

There are cultural questions around this assumption that can be very painful to ask. Diversity has always been a ‘touchy’ subject around rank and file, and the use of quotas can be discussed with absolute derision. The usual comments revolve around recruiting the ‘best candidates’ regardless of sex/age/ethnicity/religion/sexuality etc. apply. Many will say that this is fair comment, but the issue is far more complicated than any numbers can illustrate. This may also be a symptom of the problem. If the majority of successful candidates originate from one dominant demographic, then there has to be some reason for that.

One of my supervisors was having a discussion with a HR professional from IBM around the issue of representation. The discussion was interesting, as they stated that representation was not an issue for them as a company as they had a very diverse workforce by default. Their working baseline was to always take the best candidates as discussed above. The best candidates were diverse anyway, so positive action was not necessary. The default position in the Police is however, very different. The amount of applications from BAME candidates is low by comparison, and for whatever reason, the eventual recruitment of BAME candidates is also relatively low following the recruitment process.

This throws up many questions around the attractiveness of the Police as a profession, the reasons around this attractiveness, the suitability of the Police selection process, and the cultural inhibitors that may pre-exist any application to join the Police. These however, are all part of a wider picture around representation. What does that look like to communities? Is it desirable? If so, why? How does a diverse force act and how does it behave? Are the larger questions about openness to difference, rather than around ethnic background?

These questions are very large and they don’t preclude the fact that quotas may in fact be a great way of addressing the problem within our communities. The problem is – as I have mentioned in previous blogs – we actually don’t know. We don’t know enough about what ‘representation’ looks like to design solutions that go some way to actually achieve it.

The current method of using recruitment quotas could actually be viewed as a certified effort of Ready – Fire – Aim.

On a larger scale, this could all be part of a bigger picture of a binary way of viewing issues in the Police. There are many binary relationships in the Police, including guilty/innocent, red/green, detected/undetected, convicted/no-trace, goody/baddy, legal/illegal, and the biggy – problem solved/problem fixed. These relationships all form part of the social norms that create a copper’s daily business, so they can’t help but form the way that problems are solved. Simple and quick solutions have an extraordinary attraction in a busy environment, yet fixing a problem – read sticky plaster, is no way to solve an arterial bleed. That requires intricate and complex surgery that is based on years of evidence based medicine. Sociological problems cannot be examined in a binary way; they exist in kaleidoscope containing an impressive array of shades of grey.

It is my aim as a student on the scholarship, to go out into the communities that the Police Force serve and ask these questions, with a view to collating themes and experiences. These will form the basis for a qualitative study into how the Police can better service the problem of representation and ultimately, help with justifying – or indeed the opposite – the use of recruitment quotas as a means to improve. I would also like to explore other research methods and ally the real experiences of people that I speak with, with the quantitative data that the Police use every day. Do they match up? Or is there a gap between what the numbers look like, and what they actually say?

I would really like your views on this, as it can only help for me to canvas feelings on what can be quite a sensitive subject. Comment here, or drop me an email on garethlstubbs@gmail.com if you would like to discuss it without the full weight of the internet watching.

I shall – of course – be keeping you updated as the research kicks in!