‘It feels like a mountain, but there has been a monumental shift’

“The results don’t shock me but the lack of action does shock me.”

These are the words of Desmond Brown, one year on from his major report that was published in March last year.

The report, produced in the wake of the 2017 Lammy Review, highlighted an urgent need to address racial disparities across the criminal justice system in Avon and Somerset.

Entitled ‘Identifying Disproportionality in the Avon & Somerset Criminal Justice System’, it looked at stop & search, youth justice, out of court disposals, prisons and the judiciary, and painted a stark picture of the criminal justice system in Avon and Somerset, with major discrepancies in data, stop and search practices, and out of court disposals all highlighted as areas of concern.

The report was chaired by Brown, founder of Growing Futures. He set out 83 recommendations for Avon and Somerset’s criminal justice system, more than half of which were aimed at Avon and Somerset Police.

So far, some of the recommendations have been completed, and an independent scrutiny community has been created with people from the community who have been impacted by disproportionality in the criminal justice system.

A race action plan is also being drawn up, and meetings with criminal justice partners are ongoing.

Desmond Brown’s organisation, Growing Futures, works with schools, parents and youth groups to help prevent young people from falling through the cracks – photo: Ellie Pipe

However, a year on, the report’s chair is cautiously optimistic about the progress that has been made.

Despite some improvements, Brown believes change has been too slow.

In an interview with Bristol24/7, he began by quoting David Lammy who, in the years after his own major review, said he could detect a lot of activity, but that activity shouldn’t be confused with measurable outcomes on the ground.

“After David Lammy’s report I thought, perhaps naively, that I would step in and all the data and work would be done but it feels like people haven’t taken the initiative or felt urgency to deal with this,” he said.

“There hasn’t really been any evaluation or monitoring of things that have been done. It doesn’t feel like a high enough priority.”

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Read more: Disproportionality in the criminal justice system laid bare in new report

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Brown praised Avon and Somerset Police however, who he believed had genuinely listened and taken on board the findings of the report.

“It feels like a mountain, but especially within the constabulary, there has been a monumental shift,” he said. “This needs to filter down to the officers on the ground so they feel the community has confidence in them.

“(Chief constable) Sarah Crew said “it’s no longer enough to be not racist, we have to be anti-racist”, and that’s the furthest any chief constable has dared themselves to go but I really believe that she means that,” said Brown.

Brown said he believed there was a shift in the way the police operated during the Black Lives Matter protests – photo: Phil Riley

The 54 year old is keen to ensure that the voices of those whose lives have been impacted by the criminal justice system are heard.

“There are often the same voices sitting at the table all the time. I think it’s really important that we get younger and new voices in the room so they can have those conversations and those relationships are built,” he said.

“We’ve had many reports in the last 50 years and nothing has changed so communities are rightly very sceptical. People are suspicious of anyone that engages with the police.

“The community needs to be empowered by these organisations. It’s people who are seldom heard but experience the most effects of a criminal justice system that is disproportionate towards them.”

Chief constable Sarah Crew told Bristol24/7 she agreed that there was more work to be done: “One year on since the report was published, I think we’re on track.

“We have made progress but there is still lots more to do, particularly around being more representative of the communities we serve.”

Crew said the report, alongside the National Police Race Action Plan, has given the police a clear framework for change, and has ensured they commit to it.

However, she stressed that police are only one arm of the criminal justice system.

“Delivering on all of the recommendations in the report cannot be achieved by the police alone,” she said.

“It is a multiagency commitment which reaches across the whole of the criminal justice system and involves partners from the judiciary, the Crown Prosecution Service, the prison service, local authorities and youth justice.

Sarah Crew has been at the forefront of changes to the police force since becoming Avon and Somerset Police’s first female chief constable in November 2021 – photo: Avon and Somerset Police

“I am steering the work on behalf of these partners because I take the police’s responsibility as the gatekeepers to the criminal justice system seriously. But making real and lasting change is a collective endeavour.

“We’re analysing our recruitment data and building positive action and other support mechanisms into our recruitment practices, to make them more equitable and to enable people from underrepresented groups have every opportunity to secure a role with us.

“Disproportionality is ingrained in every area of our society and public life and we can’t turn things around overnight. Even when we can say that we’ve delivered on all of our 43 recommendations in the report, I won’t then think ‘job done’ and move on.

“This is an ongoing journey and conversation with our communities, whose legacy of distrust in the police and the wider criminal justice system runs deep.

“We’re chipping away at this, and I am hopeful that we will rebuild their trust and confidence as we move forward with this work.”

For Brown, a criminal justice system built on these foundations of trust and confidence is integral to building a positive relationship between Black and minority communities and the criminal justice system.

“People in the system need to be courageous and grasp the nettle,” he said.

“They will get pushback from people who think it is just wokeness and playing the race card. But in my job I see the devastation in lives on the ground through disproportionality.

“A gun has been fired now on this, and my role is to hold to account and make sure we are on track to achieving measurable outcomes, but that has to be tempered by a real fear that we have been here before.

“We’ve got a lot to be proud of in Bristol, but there is also a lot of work to do.”

Main photo: Mia Vines Booth

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• New series explores pupil’s experiences of racism and discrimination in schools
• Police hope for ‘positive moves’ following Colston 4 verdicts
• Paddleboarder sentenced for hitting boy in park

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