'Ban racial profiling'
2007-10-04 21:11
Paris - Racial profiling by police should
be banned as it alienates the very communities whose cooperation
police need to beat crime and terrorism, a European rights group
said on Thursday.
The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance
(ECRI) report said only intelligence-based police action could
win public support and produce results.
In its non-binding report the ECRI called on police to win
over ethnic communities by improving the recording and
investigation of race crimes and combating discrimination by
serving officers.
Since the 2001 attacks on the United States, rights groups
say there has been a surge in the use of racial profiling by
police and security services to identify possible suspects, with
race, colour or language among key criteria used.
"Racial profiling is not effective and is conducive to less,
not more, human security," said the report by the ECRI, which is
part of the Council of Europe human rights watchdog based in the
eastern French city of Strasbourg.
"It is trust in the police by all segments of society that
enhances overall security," it said.
Illegal
Rachel Neild, of the group National Criminal Justice Reform,
told a conference on the report that ethnic profiling was in
most cases illegal, as it treated people for who they were not
what they had done.
Following terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London
in the past six years, 32% of British Muslims had
reported suffering discrimination at airports, she said.
"There is considerable evidence that profiling is
ineffective as a police tactic and may in fact worsen crime and
the risk of terrorism," Neild said.
"It alienates the very communities whose assistance is most
important to supporting police intelligence gathering and crime
prevention and investigation efforts."
Life-blood
Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei at Scotland Yard, one of the
most senior Muslim officers in Britain, said 70% of crime
was solved thanks to community intelligence - members of the
public approaching the police.
"It's the life-blood by which police deliver service to the
community. No community intelligence, nobody goes to prison,"
Dizaei said.
"Community intelligence doesn't come on a plate. You need to
win the confidence of the community and that's where these
recommendations come in," he added.
Dizaei said Muslims at one mosque had told him they had
known one of their brethren had been acting strangely but had
not contacted police. The man went on to carry out a suicide
bombing in Israel.
"The local Muslim community had no trust and confidence in
the police and therefore there was no community intelligence and
this person was able to operate, become radicalised and go and
kill and maim other people," Dizaei said.