Chief Constables Council Votes to Fund Police Race Action Plan for 2025
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The Police Race Action Plan (PRAP), described as “the biggest coordinated effort ever across every police force in England and Wales to improve trust and confidence in policing among Black communities,” received further backing from the Chief Constables’ Council last December. All chief constables across the UK voted to fund its implementation for another year, reversing the scheduled disbandment of the national team dedicated to its delivery.
The plan was previously criticised for its ‘glacial’ rate of change, with some arguing for government intervention to ensure the delivery of its priorities. The decision of the National Black Police Association to withdraw support for the plan last summer was particularly damning, and threatened to shatter the plan’s credibility, although they have since voted to re-engage. The appointment of Dr Alison Heydari, the UK’s most senior Black female police officer, as Programme Director has been seen to bolster the plan’s legitimacy and may have lent the programme its new sense of direction.
Launched in 2022, partly in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, the plan seeks to address long standing issues concerning the police’s relationship with race–issues epitomised by the 1981 Brixton riots, the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, and today’s ‘automated racism’ scandal. The PRAP builds upon other schemes and interventions aimed at solving these issues, such as the Police Uplift Programme (aimed at creating a more diverse police force) and newly enhanced inspection and complaints processes, in addition to formal reviews such as the Scarman Report and Macpherson Report. These reports in particular, which formally recognised the harmful impact of police on Black Britons and the police’s institutional racism respectively, are foundational to understanding the plan’s approach.
The current iteration of the plan is unprecedented in its scope and coordination, laying out a national strategy to improve policing for Black communities, supported by every Chief Constable in the country. This ultimately entails promoting an anti-racist culture within police forces, with the objectives organised into four key ‘workstreams’:
Culture and workforce - emphasising Black representation within police forces and an inclusive internal culture
Powers and procedures - focusing on a policing system that is ‘fair, respectable, and equitable’ in its treatment of Black people
Trust and reconciliation - involving Black communities in the oversight of policing
Safety and victimisation - protecting and seeking justice for Black victims of crime
Renewed funding for the plan has been accompanied by new priorities to sit alongside these workstreams. Derived from a recent oversight report intended to accelerate the PRAP’s progress, these priorities include supporting the practical delivery of suggested policies and proposals developed under the plan, such as recording the ethnicity of those subject to traffic stops, and engagement with ‘police forces, partners and the public’ to ensure an understanding of what has been delivered and to set expectations for police forces.
The plan has already delivered on some of its previous priorities, with training including the history of policing and its relationship with Black communities, new research investigating disproportionality, particularly in relation to tasering, and further “widespread reforms to all police stops,” pointing to some progress in its anti-racism efforts.