Between 27 March – 25 May 2020, the overall rate in which fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for breaches of coronavirus regulations were issued were 1.8 times higher for Black and Asian people than it was for White people. In a bid to ‘tell the whole story’, this research explored the ethnic disproportionality in coronavirus FPNs issued.
The project, awarded £14.7k from the N8 Policing Research Partnership as part of the N8 Covid-19 Small Grants fund, partnered with West Yorkshire Police, Cumbria Police, Cheshire Police, and Greater Manchester Police. This research compared the disproportionality against wider social divisions and inequalities, based on police-public encounters and the crucial contextual factors that shape each encounter.
The project, led by Dr Liz Turner, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Social Policy, and Criminology, as Principal Investigator, and Dr Mike Rowe, Lecturer in Public Sector Management, Management School, as Co-Investigator, ran from October 2020 – October 2021.
Through close collaboration between academics and police analysts, existing police datasets and records provided some insight into the nature and frequency of the FPNs. Wider contextual factors provided insight into the issue of minority ethnic disproportionality, such as socio-economic indicators, and data on calls for service in relation to coronavirus regulation breaches.
Findings of the research showed that due to a combination of social and economic factors, and existing patterns of policing, some societal groups were clearly more at risk of being found breaching Covid-19 regulations. Individuals regarded as usually ‘law-abiding’ and were encountered in circumstances that would not usually attract police intervention, were less likely to be fined for breaking the Covid-19 rules.
Officers’ evaluations of the general character of individual ‘rule-breakers’ seemed to have been more important than the level of risk and harm posed by their breach of Covid-19 regulations, in shaping decisions about whether to issue a fixed penalty notice. Taken together, these key findings provided a clear indication of why ethnic minority groups (and particularly Black and Asian people) were more likely to be fined for breaching Covid regulations.
The police response appeared to lack a sustained and clear focus on reducing the level of risk and harm caused by Covid-19, and to have been overly concerned with avoiding antagonising people normally regarded as ‘decent’ and ‘law-abiding’. At the same time, it was reported that the additional Covid ‘powers’ were seen as another option for dealing with people regarded as more ‘legitimate’ recipients of coercive police interventions. From both equalities and human rights perspectives, this is problematic.
The project lay the foundations for a longer-term collaboration between the participating police forces and academics to develop, apply, and pilot a new approach to understanding and addressing the longstanding ethnic disproportionality in the use of all police powers, including stop and search, and use of force.
Report
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