A woke police force is the last thing we need

Gender ideology and critical race theory corrode justice and hard-won rights.

Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash

‘If this plan is labelled as woke it means it’s heading in the right direction.’ Speaking ahead of the launch of the Police Race Action Plan last week, Abimbola Johnson, chairwoman of the scrutiny panel that will monitor the plan’s implementation, was on the defensive.

The action plan sets out ‘the commitment of chief constables in England and Wales to become an anti-racist police service and to explain or reform race disparities’. All police officers will be expected to undergo mandatory training in the history of policing black communities and to consider racial disparities in arrests and the use of force.

Police should not, of course, be racist or act in racially discriminatory ways. But being ‘not racist’ and being ‘anti-racist’ are two very different things, particularly these days. The first requires police officers to do their job, catching criminals and protecting victims, irrespective of the skin colour of either party. The second requires moving from colour-blind policing to social-justice policing, placing concerns about racism and racial disparities at the core of police practice.