Over the last couple of weeks we've been reminded that the police are racist when deciding who is "suspicious" and needs to be photographed and databased, racist when deciding who is innocent and "not a serious threat", and racist when deciding whether to beat, tase, shoot or bite suspects. But never fear! They're investigating themselves to get to the bottom of their "unconscious bias"!
Police are investigating whether they have unconscious bias against Māori, but won't say it is an inquiry into racism.The fact they won't even call it racism tells us everything we need to know about how honest this "investigation" is. And we can probably expect it to be as successful as every other time police have investigated themselves for wrongdoing: a complete whitewash. If we want to stamp out police racism, we don't need an internal investigation: we need an independent, external one. And we need to follow it up by firing racist police, because they're a real and ongoing threat to public confidence in their organisation.Police have launched a long-term research project with Te Puna Haumaru NZ Institute for Security and Crime Science at the University of Waikato, looking at how to ensure everyone is getting fair treatment.
Titled "Understanding Policing Delivery", the study will focus on examining where bias may exist within police policies, processes, and practices, according to a media statement.
