One year on from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry report, which accused the Metropolitan Police of institutionalised racism, stamping out racist behaviour is a priority for Thames Valley Police and for local community groups. Andrew Ffrench reports.

Thames Valley Police officers have picked up the gauntlet thrown down to all forces by the Stephen Lawrence inquiry report.

That was the message delivered by Chief Constable Charles Pollard at a recent conference in Oxford.

The meeting, organised by Oxfordshire Racial Equality Council, was called to examine how public services are dealing with racism one year on from the publication of Sir William Macpherson's report, which accused the Metropolitan Police of institutionalised racism.

Mr Pollard told delegates that much had been done by the force to fulfil the recommendations made by Sir William and that more would be accomplished over the coming weeks and months. He said: "We have reviewed our position, assessed our failings, planned our route ahead and are now heading positively and constructively forward.

"We are addressing the issue of diversity both internally and externally.

"Our success will rely on how effectively we work with the communities we serve, but we are committed to getting things right."

At a Thames Valley Police Authority meeting yesterday it emerged that a recent survey of more than 2,400 children at schools in Slough and Reading showed 54 per cent of children from an ethnic background said police did a very good or fairly good job, compared to 69 per cent of white children. A force-wide community and race relations strategy was launched last September, which made a public commitment to tackle intolerance.

The force has also moved swiftly to adopt Sir William simplified definition of a racist incident as one 'which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person'.

Since the beginning of April last year, officers have been required to report all incidents of a racist nature.

Great emphasis has been placed on awareness training for staff on how to deal with such offences.

Specially-trained community and race relations officers have been appointed on each of the force's ten police areas, to provide expert advice to colleagues on the handling of racist and other hate crimes. Thames Valley Police is also currently piloting a community and race relations training programme devised by a team of management consultants.

This work has resulted in the number of racist offences recorded between April 1, 1999, and January 31, 2000, rising from 90 to 504 - up 414 on the same period the previous year.

A total of 418 racist incidents that were not crimes were also recorded.

Police say these figures show that confidence in the police to tackle racism is improving every day.

Efforts to encourage more people to report racist incidents are continuing. A number of police areas are working in partnership with other agencies to set up reporting mechanisms that allow people to avoid direct contact with the police where this is desired. A telephone hotline operated by the Oxfordshire Racial Equality Council, on behalf of a multi-agency group involving the police, has been launched in Oxford.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith launched the Anti-racism hotline, which is on 01865 815121.

Andrew Harper-Smith, director of the council, promised: "Once a person has made that first important step to contact us, we can help them to work out how best to deal with the problem."

The force has also set up a working party on stop-and-search powers to provide a standardised Thames Valley-wide system.

Additional training for officers on the law regarding stop and search powers is already being rolled out.

Great emphasis has been placed on the need to value diversity within the workforce. The force's Culture Club, an initiative developed by staff to influence cultural change within the organisation, has gathered momentum over the past 12 months.

Another significant development has been the formation of a Thames Valley Black Police Officers' Association.

Mr Pollard stressed: "There is a lot of challenging work ahead. We are committed to delivering a quality service to all members of our community."

* Case study: Black motorist Harold McFarlane, who accused police of stopping him more than 20 times in two years, said today that he was no longer suffering harassment.

In March last year, a case brought against the 33-year-old was dropped when a police officer failed to attend the hearing.

Mr McFarlane, of Emperor Gardens, Greater Leys, Oxford, finally snapped when officers stopped him in his Vauxhall Calibra, which has a personalised number plate, on December 4, 1998. After driving away, he was charged with threatening behaviour. The offence was later reduced to obstructing officers.

After the charge against him was dropped, he said he felt he had been a victim of racism and made an official complaint to Thames Valley Police.

This is now the subject of investigation by the Police Complaints Authority.

Mr McFarlane said he was no longer being harassed and believed this was partly due to recommendations made by Sir William Macpherson in the Stephen Lawrence inquiry about the powers of police to stop-and-search.

The father-of-three said: "I am still waiting to hear the outcome of my official complaint but I have to say I am no longer being stopped and searched and I think that is partly due to advice given to police after the Stephen Lawrence findings. "I have been tailed a couple of times in my Calibra but I think that could happen to anybody, regardless of whether they are black or white.

"The police are now much more aware of the race issue and appear to be trying to recruit more black police officers to try to calm the situation down in Oxford."

Mr McFarlane, who drives disabled children to and from school, said he was delighted last month by the efforts of police when he and his wife Charlotte reported their 16-year-old son Orlando missing.

"He has since turned up and is fine," said Mr McFarlane, "but at the time we were extremely worried about him so we reported him missing to the police.

"He didn't even realise we were looking for him and came back of his own accord, but police did everything they could to find him.

"They came round three times in two days. It surprised us how quickly they responded. "The police are certainly trying to improve the situation but it is like anything - you are always going to get one or two bad people."

Harold's wife Charlotte added: "The group Cairo (Campaign Against Institutional Racism in Oxford) will be holding another meeting soon because there are still people experiencing problems.

"Harold has just got his car back on the road but the police are leaving him alone at the moment. He is not being bothered and that's a good thing."

Thames Valley police are not commenting on the case until a decision is reached by the Police Complaints Authority.

Last year, a police spokesman said: "We take this matter very seriously. We are in discussion with Mr McFarlane about these allegations.

"However, as it is now the subject of an official complaint, it would be inappropriate to discuss the details of this particular case." *We want your opinion on the issue of racism in Oxfordshire. Call the Oxford Mail readers' editor on 01865 425450, e-mail him at peter.unsworth@nqo.com or write to him at: Oxford Mail, Newspaper House, Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 0EJ

Story date: Thursday 23 March

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.