Black Britons, Race, and Policing

This book traces the historical and contemporary policing experiences of Black communities in Britain, providing insight into how policing has - and hasn’t - changed over time. Throughout the 21st Century, the police have over and over again shown Black Britons that their belonging in this country is conditional. Drawing on data from 58 interviews with young people, adults/elders and community workers in a heavily policed neighbourhood in North London, it applies an intersectional lens to the Black British experience of racialised policing across generations. It explores the contemporary life of Black Britons, in their own powerful words. The stories uncovered here illuminate how negative experiences of policing over time have created deeply embedded cultural narratives about policing and race, that are transmitted across generations of Black British communities. Light is shone upon the ways in which policing operates to racialise, criminalise and identify certain communities as ‘other’, and, crucially, how these reinforce ideologies which have historically defined the British imperial project. This book explores the enduring legacy of poor policing practices within Black communities which has significant implications for the present and future relationship between the police and Black Britons, and is representative of the place of Black people in Britain more broadly. It provides recommendations for how to improve the relationship between the police and racialised communities for practitioners.

Bisi Akintoye is Lecturer at University of Roehampton, UK, and a solicitor whose research focuses on the intersection between race, drugs, policing, and youth experiences.