The tragic events of Ferguson and the subsequent scenes we are witnessing only serve to stress the need for effective community relations between the Police and the local community. It is only through positive engagement that trust and confidence can be built. Without this, people’s views of the police will not change and communities will not see the police for what or who they are – people like us sworn to protect and serve them.
A key component of building this trust comes from having a representative police service that looks like the community it serves. If you look at Ferguson, a significant proportion of the local community are black, however the local police are overwhelmingly white. Greater efforts, both there and here at home in the UK, need to be made to encourage more minority groups to serve their community as police officers if we are ever to escape the mistakes of the past.
Events such as those in Ferguson also highlight the need and importance of independent scrutiny where the ultimate use of force is brought to bear. The loss of life is always tragic and families and the wider community deserve to have answers which are based on an open and transparent process that gives them full confidence in an independent unbiased investigative process.
Where people wish to challenge those decisions, they should have a right to assemble and protest against those decisions in a peaceful non violent way, free from intimidation or threat of force. Without a measured and proportionate response, the police will always run the risk of alienating the community further.
The people protesting, however, must not lose sight of what they are protesting for. The scenes currently being witnessed in Ferguson are reminiscent of our own recent experiences in London and other major UK cities in August 2011. The looting of businesses and the destruction of property is not something that can be condoned. Many of these are small businesses which serve the local community and may not bounce back from this. A significant proportion of these businesses are also black owned. There must now be a concerted and effective intervention to heal community tensions that will allow for everyone to move forward.
Janet Hills, Chair of the MetBPA said, ‘the Association play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the police and local communities. We provide access to views from a lived experience and give our communities a voice. Our work takes us both into the heart of local communities and Policing and allows us to positively influence the changes which are necessary, whilst holding senior leaders to account for their actions and perverse decision making. We hope that calm and peace can return to the streets of Ferguson’.