Pandemic Policing in the UK: Findings from Co-POWeR and CoDE
On 16 June 2022, Work Package 1 (WP1) organised and delivered an online dissemination workshop called Pandemic Policing in the UK.
The event was co-hosted by CoDE (Centre on the Dynamics of ethnicity from the University of Manchester). CoDE was present via our colleagues, Scarlet Harris (University of Manchester), Remi Joseph-Salisbury (University of Manchester), and Lisa White (Liverpool John Moores University). The full WP1 Co-POWeR team: Iyiola Solanke (University of Leeds), Gargi Bhattacharyya (University of East London) and Monica Bernal Llanos (University of Leeds) was also in attendance. Both Co-POWeR and CoDE conducted separate bodies of research on the over-policing of racially minoritised communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the most severe global health emergency as declared by the World Health Organization.
Although conducted at different points in time during the pandemic, findings from the two projects revealed how the emergency powers granted to the UK police via the Coronavirus Act, have negatively impacted Black, Asian and Minority ethnic families and communities during a time when many of these families and communities found themselves disproportionality affected and vulnerable from the very onset of the pandemic.
Among the most important agreements in terms of the findings, is that increased police powers exacerbate harm to racially minoritised communities in the UK. According to Co-POWeR’s findings, poorly framed and specified COVID-19 rules (a fact agreed upon by the police itself) did nothing but contribute to their arbitrary and disproportionate use on - and further stigmatisation of - Black, Asian and minority ethnic families and communities. In the words of CoDE, lockdown conditions provided fertile ground for the (re)articulation of racist policing.
The second big area of agreement between the two projects, is that police powers are massively counterproductive to manage a health crisis such as the COVID-19. The combination of state racism and the debilitated lack of trust between racially minoritised groups and the police built over years of racist policing in the UK undermines the overall effectiveness of the laws introduced to deal with a health crisis such as the pandemic.
For more information on these two projects you can take view the video recording of the event and the presentation slides used and prepared by both teams.
Download a PDF of the presentation slides
Blog post by Monica Bernal Llanos