Talking a different language? Racist incidents and differing perceptions of service provision

The public inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence highlighted a lack of confidence in the police among black and minority ethnic (BME) communities. The Report's first recommendation was that the Home Secretary establish a ministerial priority for all police forces to increase such confidence. The way the service dealt with racist incidents was identified as a key part of improving this confidence (Macpherson 1999) and a code of practice dealing with the reporting and recording of racist incidents quickly followed (Home office 2000).