ABSTRACT
Two significant anniversaries passed during the period in which this book has been written, both of which led the media to reassess the state of race, racism and the British police service. April 2003 saw the tenth anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence marked with a memorial service that was attended by many high-profile figures alongside his family and friends. Eight months later the media devoted many column-inches to reviewing the extent to which progress had been made in the five years since publication of the Macpherson Report in January 1999. In many respects this book seeks to add to this debate by taking as a recurring theme the question: ‘What has changed since Macpherson?’. While what is outlined in the following chapters is intended to provide a thorough analysis of the myriad of policies and initiatives that have been generated in the half decade since the Lawrence Report appeared, it is emphasised at the outset that a definitive answer to that question remains elusive. As much as can be stated with any certainty is that those responsible for managing and leading the police service have developed a raft of measures in response to the Lawrence Report that have covered a very wide range of police activity. The extent to which these have improved the quality of service that minority ethnic communities receive from the police is, however, much more difficult to discern and it is certain that the gulf in public trust and confidence in the police that Macpherson identified has not been fully bridged.
