The IPCC and Diversity
One of the drivers for the reform of the police complaints system was the McPherson inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence. It is for this reason that justice and respect for human rights are at the heart of the complaints system.
The complexity of policing a modern and diverse society means always having to balance the rights of individuals and the public interest in law and order.
The complaints system needs to work for everyone and the IPCC wants to see fair and equal treatment of all complainants police officers/staff who may be involved.
What is the IPCC doing?
Investigating complaints
All complaints of criminal behaviour that are aggravated by discriminatory behaviour have to be referred to the IPCC by law. This means that the IPCC then decides the level of scrutiny appropriate for each individual incident and will ensure that lessons learnt are fed-back to make a difference to operational policing.
Developing policy
The IPCC is establishing dialogue on a national and regional level with people who can tell us how the police are getting on – to share good practice and feed back concerns. This influences our own internal policies as well as what we are saying to the police.
Putting our own house in order
One of the IPCC's core values is diversity. As a small step towards realising this, we have put together a race equality scheme. We hope to learn from the experiences of having a scheme on one specific area of equality so that we can develop robust processes around diversity as a whole.
Some of the areas of IPCC work:
Race and Policing
Meeting the needs of British Muslims
The IPCC’s Race Equality Scheme
See also Policing and Mental Health
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