MPs critical of police over hate crime

The police clearance rate for racial and homophobic incidents in Northern Ireland is disturbingly low, a new report claimed today.

And even though the level of hate crime is increasing, the approach by the authorities in tackling it is disjointed, sluggish and lacking in vision, according to an all-party committee of MPs.

Until recently, the police service had no formal definition of sectarian hate crime which was alarming given the country’s troubled history, the Northern Ireland Affairs committee alleged.

Less than 7% of incidents recorded as crimes by the police resulted in charges or summonses and the committee said it was greatly concerned about the very low level of confidence which most ethnic, as well as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities have in the police.

The committee recognised the steps taken by the police to develop more effective relationships and to improve its training strategies, but much more needed to be done to heighten confidence. It was crucial the service was more representative of all communities and they recommended the policing board secure higher levels of recruitment from the minority ethnic communities as a matter of priority.

The report claimed: “It is deeply worrying that minority communities do not have full confidence in the police, particularly against the background of increased incidence of hate crime. This situation must be changed rapidly.”

The MPs said if Northern Ireland was to establish a fully normal society, then the despicable and brutal attacks must cease, and it was up to the government, churches, the institutions of civil society and every individual to take collective responsibility.

Nothing they said, could illustrate the dysfunctional nature of Northern Ireland society better than the absence, until recently, of an agreed, official definition of sectarian hate crime.

The process of social normalisation, marked by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement had enabled society to begin slowly to get to grips with a number of problems which had been set aside over the past decades by the overwhelming concentration on the armed conflict.

In many respects, Northern Ireland’s institutions were now having to relearn their basic functions as society returned, slowly and painfully to normal. The police, at long last had established a definition for sectarian hate crime as an essential basis for proactive policing.

But the report added: “It is high time that the police and criminal justice system in Northern Ireland took with the utmost seriousness crimes against the most vulnerable in our society.

“Many attacks on people with disabilities appear to be rooted in the perception of the attacker that the victim’s disability indicates some essential differences which provide a licence to discriminate. This is an utterly false perception which must be challenged head-on.”

The committee claimed the Northern Ireland Office and the criminal justice agencies had also shown a lack of firm and effective leadership. The agencies appeared to be aware of the problem and were taking some action to make their staff aware of it and to provide training.

But these were initial steps only and the agencies needed to sustain a robust and co-ordinated approach in order to keep staff awareness high. Minority groups, particularly victims, had to play their part and be encouraged to report attacks, even though they may be fearful of the authorities.

Without victims’ reports, the police and the authorities could do nothing. Worse still, the impression may persist that there was simply no problem to address, or the problem was a minor one. That played into the hands of the perpetrators and encouraged them in the belief they could commit crimes with impunity and stoked the flames of prejudice and intra-community frustration.

The committee said it was concerned by the failure of the Office of First Minister and deputy First Minister to produce strategies and agree timetables which had a direct bearing on hate crime.

It said, however, that they had no reason to suppose this indicated a lack of determination to address head-on the increasing problems, but that government strategies were required as a matter of urgency. Some were badly overdue and once in place would promote transparency, ensure accountability and inspire confidence in groups most vulnerable.

The report said: “There must be no doubt about what we have found: the absence of a strongly promoted ‘vision’ for community relations in Northern Ireland; an unacceptable slowness in policy development and little evidence that policies are delivering real, ‘on the ground’ improvements to the lives of vulnerable individuals, all of which is resulting in dissatisfaction amongst these groups and a deteriorating pattern of intercommunity relations.

“We are concerned that, despite officials’ reassuring words, present arrangements between OFMDFM and the NIO may be insufficiently co-ordinated to act speedily in producing effective strategies to combat hate crime. The government must consider that improvements are required to correct this unsatisfactory state of affairs.”

The British government, police and other criminal justice agencies had to increase their efforts to eradicate it, the report said.

It added: “However if a real impact on this problem is to be made, the pace of policy and strategy development on the part of the government and enforcement on the part of the PSNI, will need to speed up.

“Polices need to be ‘smart’ transparent and capable of having an immediate impact ‘on the ground’. Strategy is not a substitute for rigorous practical action. Enforcement needs to be carried out with rigour.”