Critically examine the over-policing and under-protection of ethnic

minority communities. To what extent does institutional racism explain

this?
There are countless cases of over-policing and under-protection of various ethnic minorities, most of
which broadcasted by the media. This essay will not only critically examine these cases but assess
institutional racism as a valid explanation for them. Over-policing and under-protection cases occur
worldwide, so this essay will cover a small variety. The United States has a hugely disproportionate
number of stop-and-searches depending on the ethnicity of the victim, alongside civil rights movements
in the past that exaggerate the public’s belief of under-protection of certain ethnic minorities and in
current day, recent surveys proving that some communities still feel under-protected. A case of
supposed police brutality which ended in Adama Traore dying in police custody links in with the over-
policing of ethnic minorities inextricably. In France, as well, Chinese immigrants demonstrated their
grievances of under-protection as a result of a death during a mugging. In the United Kingdom, Asians
and Muslims are subject to over-policing mainly through the use of stop and searches; this essay will
investigate these statistics. Also, in the UK, a wrongful death in police custody, followed by a detailed
report is the one the most significant cases of both over-policing and under-protection but mainly the
latter. The US, France and the UK are certainly not the only countries where over-policing and under-
protection of ethnic minorities takes place. This essay also brings in an example from the Netherlands.
A possible explanation for all of these cases is institutional racism, which this essay will venture into
and investigate. The definition of institutional racism entails an organisation guilty of unfair treatment
as a whole, this makes institutional racism rare but extremely significant – most of the other times of
over-policing and under-protection a fair few of different factors can be at play.

Over-policing of ethnic minorities is often reported and protested about worldwide, whether its stop
and searches or violence in police custody. Over-policing consists of the police force targeting and
acting with a bias to certain ethnicities, Shiner et al. (2020) states that a main feature of this is stop and
searches. A major study in California showing data on police stop and searches has revealed that police
bias is very much happening, (Oag.ca.gov, 2020). In Los Angeles, the statistics show although blacks
consist of nine per cent of the population, twenty-eight per cent of individuals stopped were indeed
black. In San Francisco, blacks occupy just five per cent of the population, but again have been stopped
a staggering twenty-six per cent of all stops. However, this is the largest racial disparity in police stops
out of all of the statistics provided from the eight large law enforcement agencies in the state of
California, in the other law enforcement agencies, the percentage of white people stopped were thirty-
three per cent compared to fifteen per cent of stops were black people. This shows that some statistics
really support that ethnic minorities are being over-policed, but not all results are broadcasted as widely
which put the significant statistics into proportion. It has been proven that black people are much more
likely to be detained, handcuffed, searched and have the police pointing firearms at them even though
the police are less likely to find illegal possessions on black, Latino and Native Americans than they
are when they search white people. This study has revealed the extreme racial disparities in one state of
the US, which is not alone. An article by Weaver (2018) wrote how white people can easily use the
police force to remove unwanted black people in the US, such as in a Starbucks in Philadelphia where
two black men were removed as they were waiting for a friend and had not purchased a product. This
case is very extreme, and although it is policy to purchase a product if you are going to sit in a branch,
an arrest does seem out of the question. The article delves into many stories alike this one where a
member of the white public experience the police force as helpful and effective at dealing with their
minor inconveniences. This shows the difference in police image between white and black people, as a
result of over-policing harmless civilians. In France, a recent case of over-policing resulted in a much
more devastating outcome – the death of Adama Traore. The police force claim that he suffered a heart
attack, whilst the family were content that he was of good health, and that police violence had caused
his untimely death. Two autopsies, according to Ira (2016) were taken with very different results; the
first being that his death had nothing to do with violence but an infection, whereas the second autopsy,
which was carried out by an outside expert hired by the family, found evidence of asphyxia which is
overwhelming force that deprived him of oxygen. A third autopsy was denied by the court. This is an
undeniable suspicion appearing as an attempt to cover up a death in French police custody, as a result
of over-policing of black people. There are also many examples of over-policing in the UK which has
been studied by various sources. An article by Hargreaves (2018) discusses stop and searches within
British Muslim communities. According to the study from 2006-2011, being Muslim increased the
likelihood of being stopped by just over one per cent, a smaller increase than being young and male
(which had a five per cent increase). This research, therefore, did not support the community’s beliefs
in bias towards Muslims in relation to police stop and searches. Once stopped, however, being Muslim
increased the likelihood of being searched by eight per cent, which was more than any ethnic or religious
group. To conclude from the study, Muslims were less likely to be stopped, but more likely to be
searched. In the Netherlands, the BBC recently wrote a story on possible ethnic profiling taking place
since more than half of the people stopped on the roadside were from an ethnic minority, BBC News
(2016). However, the article goes on to say that seventy per cent of the stops were related to a crime,
meaning that it wasn’t necessarily over-policing ethnic minorities, but the officers were just going on
their ‘intuition and experience’. Therefore, these cases are undeniably unfair and unequal to ethnic
minorities but are often broadcasted as very one-sided without taking all of the facts into consideration.

Cases of the under-protection of ethnic minorities have been going on for decades and have still not
stopped until this day. Under-protection of ethnic minorities consists of police services applying
different amounts of workforce to cases depending on the background of the victims, or not applying
enough in cases of discrimination or bias. Minorities often feel as if they are under protected from racial
victimisation according to Sampson and Phillips (1995). In 1896, the Civil Rights Movement in the
US was a fight for an end of racial discrimination, so that African Americans could be protected and
treated as equals to white Americans. This movement ended in 1954, however it did not completely
abolish inequality as there’s still evidence that racial discrimination still takes place against ethnic
minorities. A survey illustrated by Lipka (2015) revealed how Muslims in the US are concerned about
their place in American Society. Seventy-five per cent of Muslims that took part in the survey agree
that there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in the US, sixty-eight per cent answered that Donald
Trump makes them feel worried. Although this data is not fact-based and unclear in what ‘a lot’ of
discrimination entails or what about Donald Trump causes a feeling worrisome, it does portray the
effects of under-protection of ethnic minorities on the population as a whole. In France according to
Chazan (2016), Chinese immigrants were protesting due to the lack of protection from mugging. A
Chinese man, aged forty-nine, died after being badly beaten during a mugging, and with no suspects
being found and the mugging still on a rise, the Chinese population are extremely disgruntled. Further
to this, French law prohibits the collection of data based on ethnicity, religion or race. This makes ethnic
minorities feel invisible, articulates Gilbert and Keane (2016), through ultimately ignoring any possible
racial bias that may take place – leaving minorities feeling helpless and unacknowledged. This does
come across as an outdated and ignorant legal system, eliminating the possibility of any real awareness
or evaluation being able to take place to lead to change or at least reflection. With regards to the under-
protection of ethnic minorities, this is a significant influence as any bias from the police force toward
ethnic minorities is effectively hidden, whether it’s the lack of attention paid towards cases involving
racial discrimination or unfair treatment. A well-known case in the UK is an obvious example for the
under-protection of black people, the case of Stephen Lawrence. He was stabbed by a bus stop at the
age of 18 in a racially motivated attack. A report called the Macpherson Report (1999) revealed how
the police had dealt with his death and why no suspects were ever found for the awful crime. Harrison
and Gill (2017) touch on this case, but detail in the increase of reports of sexual abuse in British South
Asian communities. They discuss the research entailing people from ‘Asia, Africa and islands of the
sea’ being less pleased with their experience with the police force. There has also been little focus on
female abuse cases from the police force, stating that Asian domestic violence survivors suffer from a
double disadvantage, as domestic abuse survivors in general do not get the focus they need, even more
so when they are Asian. These cases of under-protection of ethnic minorities are undeniably unjust and
convincing that ethnic minorities are indeed under protected, especially illustrated by French law in
terms of prohibiting data specifying an individuals’ ethnicity.
The under-protection and over-policing of ethnic minorities come hand in hand in a large proportion of
communities. Many sources portray that this is due to institutional racism. The Macpherson Report that
was mentioned in the paragraph above, regarding the case of Stephen Lawrence, defines institutional
racism as “The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service
to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin.” (Macpherson, 1999) The report goes on to
say that institutional racism can be found in demeanours and performances which are a case of bias to
the ethnic minorities which suffer a detriment through bigotry, disregard and racist stereotyping. This
was an incredibly significant report in the case of Stephen Lawrence, as it revealed why the police
investigations were a failure, labelling them as institutionally racist. The report highlighted the key
areas where the police force showed signs of institutional racism; initially the officers working the case
did not acknowledge that this was a ‘racially motivated’ criminal offence, the way in which both the
family were treated in the hospital, alongside the only witness in the case showed the officers’ lack of
engagement or seriousness. Outside of the case, the report took into consideration the stop and search
figures which illustrated an astounding difference between ethnic groups, as explored earlier on in this
essay. Furthermore, institutional racism was apparent in the under-reporting of incidents related to race.
This was found to be countrywide and due to a lack of hope and trust of the police solving a case like
this, or even taking it into consideration. The report also refers to the HMIC Report, which exposed that
race relations and racism awareness training had not been completed by one officer questioned before
1998, it is important to note that in all of these areas, the report has been aware of other factors at play.
Through this investigation into which areas of the police system have institutional racism at play, proves
that in this case, and most likely many others, institutional racism is sufficient as the only explanation
for why a suspect was not found. If the police system does not apply the needed amount of workforce,
a case can simply not have the requirements to be solved. Therefore, in the case of Stephen Lawrence,
institutional racism is the forefront explanation for the under-protection of ethnic minorities in
supplying justice, but to clarify, there is no proof it is the reason of his death. It could be speculated that
due to the under-protection of ethnic minorities, racially motivated attacks are more likely because of
the lack of dedication the police force applies to the ethnic minorities because of institutional racism,
and those who commit these racist attacks, are aware of this, so they may feel more capable of
performing and getting away with such a horror.

However, some sources do not entail institutional racism as an explanation for cases of over-policing
and under-protection of ethnic minorities. Following the definition from the Macpherson Report that
institutional racism is the collective failure of the entire organisation, not all cases are consistent with
this. Antonopoulos (2003) explores this by considering the sum of police officers in the Netherlands
who were members of the extreme right-wing political party. Since this is only a proportion of the police
force and not it as a collective, institutional racism is not a sufficient explanation for some cases of
over-policing and under-protection in the Netherlands. Therefore, the article that was mentioned above
about ethnic minorities feeling targeted in stop and searches in the Netherlands due to over half of the
stops being on members of an ethnic minority, may have indeed been over-policing of ethnic minorities
but most likely not due to institutional racism, but the personal view of a certain group of police officers.
Statistics gathered in the UK, also point away from institutional racism but toward the individual police
officer. Between 2007-2019, the amount of police officers who are part of an ethnic minority has
considerably increased, (Ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk, 2019). In 2007 there were a total of just
7,511 police officers (both male and female) that were a member of an ethnic minority group out of a
total of 141,883 police officers. This difference is astounding – in itself it’s a viable reason for the over-
policing and under-protection of ethnic minorities; there simply weren’t enough officers who would be
able to relate or sympathise with the minorities as they themselves as a workforce have such a miniscule
number of the same ethnicities. The statistics in 2019 provide a much more positive and equal forecast,
but still there’s a long way to go. In 2019, there are now 11,477 officers who are not white and are a
member of an ethnic minority compared to a total of 123,172 officers. This is still a very small
percentage, only 9.32%, but it is a noticeable improvement from 2007 when the percentage was a mere
5.29%. As disheartening as these figures are, it does lightly justify the incredible amount of broadcasted
cases of over-policing and under-protection of ethnic minorities, because it is hugely dominated by
white people, who will definitely not all be insensitive to ethnic minorities, but makes it understandable
when certain ethnicities do not fully find their experience with the police force as dependable as it could
be.

To conclude, there are a multitude of cases of over-policing and under-protection of ethnic minorities,
and a large proportion do have reasonable justification. However, this is not consistent with all. Sources,
especially the media, can exaggerate or choose to miss out on information that provides perspective.
Institutional racism as an explanation for cases of under-protection and over-policing is not as an
effective explanation as it once was, due to the police force, as a whole, making a more conscious effort
to include the ethnic minority communities in their workforce – whether this is because of the
globalisation of the media causing cases to become known worldwide is irrelevant. This essay also
explored the nonsensical statistics of the workforce of the police who are members of an ethnic minority
community. These statistics, in itself, are a sufficient explanation for the cases of over-policing and
under-protection of ethnic minorities in the UK, as it is simply not diverse enough. From all the cases
presented in this essay, it’s hard to decipher which is because of institutional racism and which isn’t; it
takes an in-depth study, such as the Macpherson Report to fully perpetrate the police force as a whole
for a certain case. Therefore, institutional racism is not a sufficient explanation for over-policing and
under-protection of ethnic minorities because of the detail of the definition of the term; the collective
failure.

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