Identifying and addressing problems or abuses in police selectivity (a study)

Organisation

The Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities (UNIA), in collaboration with the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC) and the Brussels-North Police Department (the Interfederaal Gelijkekansencentrum (UNIA), in samenwerking met het Nationaal Instituut voor Criminalistiek en Criminologie (NICC) en de politiezone Brussel-Noord; le Centre Interfédéral pour l’égalité des chances (UNIA), en collaboration avec l’Institut national de Criminalistique et de Criminologie (NICC) et la zone de Police Bruxelles-Nord).

Start and end date

Start date:

July 2017.

End date:

July 2020.

Scope

Local – carried out in the Brussels-North police zone.

Target group(s)

Police officers.

Funding

The practice was funded by UNIA.

Objectives

• Consider the individual and collective practices of police officers on the basis of a number of concrete cases of discriminatory profiling.
• Question the organisation and operation of the police zone around profiling mechanisms.

Outputs

• Position paper for experts and managers in the police organisation and for researchers and organisations who want to work on building better relationships between the police and the general population.

Description

The project makes an important contribution to research on police selectivity. The project partners opted for a broader focus than ‘ethnic profiling’ because of the political sensitivity of the term and to broaden the scope of the research. The research leaves room for a range of modalities of police selectivity so that conscious and/or unconscious practices and mechanisms are within its scope. Police selectivity can be interpreted positively or negatively, depending on the needs of the analysis. The research shows that police selectivity can result from questions from citizens or choices concerning work organisation or of police officers in the field. In any case, this selectivity coincides with the (negative) perception of certain population groups.

The project allows conclusions to be drawn and recommendations to be formulated that other police zones can use. The position paper is aimed at experts and managers within the police organisation and researchers and organisations that want to work on building better relationships between the police and the general population. The paper:

• maps out the most interesting results and determines their added value;
• highlights the recommendations of UNIA, whose mission is to combat discrimination and promote equal opportunities;
• offers a framework regarding certain challenges that can arise when conducting this type of research.

Critical success factors

• Involve management and superiors.
• Reach clear agreements about the responsibilities of each actor in the collaboration.
• Ensure that there are clear lines of communication between the partners.
• Set up a quality guidance committee.
• Provide sufficient time to conduct high-quality research.
• Initiate open communication with police officers in the field.

Actors involved in the design and implementation of the practice

The management team of the Brussels-North police zone was involved in the design, planning and implementation phases; these were also carried out in collaboration with the researchers (NICC) and UNIA.

Monitoring and evaluation

The study was evaluated at three levels: by the guidance committee, by the three partners in an evaluation meeting, and by the researchers (NICC) and the financing partner (UNIA) in a separate evaluation meeting.

Publicly available contact details

UNIA Telephone: +32 (0)2 212 30 00

Email: info@unia.be