Police Complaints and Police Brutality: An Unfavourable Role in Society?
The relationship between the policeman and the citizen should be built upon great trust and respect. Recently, the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime’s citizen attitude survey revealed that the rate of trust and confidence has decreased slightly from 2021 to 2023[1]. Is it because the police force is the 'Black Cop' in our society? In this article, the ‘Black Cop’ refers to a policeman who takes advantage of public trust and confidence in him to perform duties that are not consistence with human rights. The answer remains uncertain, but 26,817 police complaint allegations are relevant to police powers, policies, and procedures[2]. In recent years, the height of French and Hong Kong protests highlighted the long-term oppression of personal liberties under the culture of police violence in France and Hong Kong. The police complaint allegations may serve as a warning to the UK government, who may look to the consequences of such as seen in the French and Hong Kong police brutality culture.
This article begins by examining the issues of police brutality in France and Hong Kong. This article will then consider the possible solutions the UK government may implement by observing the weaknesses of France and Hong Kong’s justice system.
Brief Background: The Similarities and Differences between the UK, Frenchs and Hong Kong Legal System
Comparing Hong Kong and the UK
The common law system in Hong Kong was established after a long period of British colonisation.
Both the British and Hong Kong legal system share many key features, such as the independence of the police system and the advocacy of the rule of law. In terms of the independence of the police system, the powers of the police are conferred by legal precedent and statutory requirements. Basically, the flexibility of the common legal system indulges the autonomy of the police force away from the control of the government. While the police powers are conferred by precedent and statute, the police force still has immense autonomy away from government control because of the qualified rights under statutory requirements. Similarly, the term ‘reasonable force’ is used under s.117 (1)(a) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 while the term ‘reasonably necessary force’ is mentioned under s. 17 (3)(a) of Cap. 245 Public Order Ordinance. As the British and Hong Kong legal systems are on a case-by-case basis, the government could only provide a foundation for the standard of the police force. Although the government do not control the police to achieve the government's desires through legislation, the ambiguous definition of the legislation is not ‘absolute’, which extends the scope of police powers. In practice, a policeman may claim that it is ‘reasonable’ to excuse the arrest by using disproportionate force against the protestors.
Comparing Hong Kong and France
By contrast, the French police system is constructed of codified constitution. In the French civil law system, police powers are heavily tied to the statutory provisions. This makes the government being the final decision maker of the policing system. Lack of the independence of the French police, the French law enforcement is manipulated by the French government easily.
The Police Brutality: Learning a Lesson from France and Hong Kong
France: Racial Discrimination
Photo credit: Unsplash
More recent attention has focused on the allocation of police powers in the UK’s neighbour, France. In 2017, a police shooting of a 17-year-old African adolescent Nahel Merzouk during a police traffic stop in Paris was responded with a series of police violence and [3]. This incident highlighted the long-term racial discrimination by police officers and hence the public mistrust in them. 2021, The European Court of Human Rights has been concerned about the frequency of stop and search on different races. Young Africans and Arabs were found to be at minimum 20 times more likely to be checked and stopped by the police. Furthermore, a survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, found that approximately 49% of Gypsie feel respected while more than 70% of the general population in France feel respected during[5] . This indicates that the immigrants feel less respected than the local during the stop and search of French police officers. Moreover, the United Nations noticed that there were more than 30 deaths recorded during the police operations, including 10 death cases related to the 2021[6]. Nevertheless, the French Police justifies that their powers of stop and search are conferred by the Police Code. However, there is a conflict between the conduct of the French police and Police Code.
Article 7 of the National Police Code of Conduct states that
…....in the service of the public, police officials are to behave towards the public in an exemplary manner. They are to demonstrate an absolute respect of all persons, whatever their nationality or their origin, their social situation, or their political, religious or philosophical beliefs.
It has been found that the police assume there to be an intimate relationship between immigrants and criminality based on the high crime rate amongst illegal migrants [7]. Based on the presumption of racial profiling, one argument is that it is most effective to focussing police efforts, notably stop and searches, on minorities concentrates police forces where crime is the most prevalent. However, the disproportionate targeting of certain groups based on preconceived notions of their behaviour solely on the basis of their racial background is discriminatory. As a result, frequent racial profiling leads to the rise of racial discrimination in policing.
Hong Kong: Lack of Efficient Police Complaints System
Photo credit: Unsplash
(Credit: ABC News ‘Hong Kong protester shot by police while a pro-China man is set on fire, over 260 arrested’ https://abcnews.go.com/International/hong-kong-protester-shot-police-pro-china-man/story?id=66905300)
Yet, it may could argue that the situation in France is not the worst in the conflicts between the police and the citizens. The different political ideologies between the government and citizens become the political overtones to heighten the tension between the protestors and the police officers from 2019 and 2020. The two mainstream political ideologies that led the rise of police violence are based on contrasting legitimate expectations between the government and the citizen. The moderate slogan ‘Five demands, not one less’ was introduced in 2019, including withdrawal of the Extradition bill, the withdraw of labelling the protests as ‘riot’, the release of arrested protesters without charges, the establishment of independent investigation department into police brutality, and the implementation of ‘one person one vote’. However, the government expected the police officers to stop the continuous actions of protestors in order to maintain the public order and interpreted the slogans as the threat to the autonomy of Hong Kong government.
The original cause of public assembly in 2019 was the objection to the government’s Extradition Law Amendment Bill, while the underlying cause was the failure of the Umbrella Movement between 2013 and 2014. The 2020 protests involved a series of violent clashes between police officers and citizens. The police’s use of violence towards citizens through means, such as pepper spray and tear gas, led to mass public anger towards law enforcement. The police have been determined by allegations of immoderate use of force as well as selective policing during the 721 Yuen Long incident. During the 721 incidents, men dressed in white attacked the commuters and the protestors, the attack resulted in 45 people hospitalised[8]. Despite a total of 733 beat radio audio recordings among Yuen Long Police Station and 1484 audio recordings of New Territories 999 calls, the police arrived 30 minutes late when the men dressed in white had already left[9]. When the citizens called the police for help during the beating, the police were utterly indifferent to the misconduct of men dressed in white. Compared to the policing of men dressed in black’s protest, the police chose to allow the men dressed in white to attack the citizens. Sarcastically, the ignorance of the 721 attacks is completely against the promise of public safety. Hence, selective policing led to the decline of public trust and confidence in the police.
The public satisfaction rating of the Hong Kong Police Force was 63.7 in 2014, whereas the rating was only 39.4 in 2019 [10]. In 2014, seven police officers allegedly pulled down and beat the pro-democracy activist Ken Tsang in 2014. Six of them were convicted of causing grievous bodily harm or common assault[11]. Despite the police brutality noted during the Umbrella Movement in 2014, the public trust in police force was surprisingly much better than in 2019. This is seen in the police satisfaction rating being 63.7 in 2014, compared to 39.4 in 2020. From the public’s perspective, it seems that the problem of Hong Kong Police violence has not improved from 2014 to 2019. Lack of an impartial adjudicator to give citizens a mechanism to express their concerns and bring about change. In terms of the two-tier complaints system, the Independent Police Complaints Council would not start the investigation of police complaints and ‘punish’ the police force if the Complaints Against Police Officers do not refer to the complaint cases[12]. The powers of police force are not restricted by the third parties as the Independent only provides the advice rather than giving further sanction to the Police Force. Therefore, the final decision is still on the Police Force.
The Similarities of France and Hong Kong: the Increased Budget
Another reason of the tendency of continuous police violence is the imbalance of actual spending and budget. While the French police force heavily relied on armed equipment, there was a significant increase of the annual police equipment budget in Hong Kong. In France, the payment appropriation of defence is 47 billion euros, which is the second highest spending among other types of welfare[13]. Similarly, the budget of the Hong Kong Police Force increased slightly even though the police force only used 8.5% of the allotted HK$ 507 million[14].
The UK’s Lesson: An exit to the potential police brutality
Fortunately, the misallocation of police powers and discriminatory behaviours in the UK is less serious than those in France. Independent Office for Police Conduct shows that only 3% of police complaints is in related to discriminatory behaviours while there is only 20% of police complaints is about police powers[15].
As mentioned above, the UK need to be aware of racial discrimination upon the rise of the number of immigrants. Currently, most police officers are white, constituting 91.9% of the police force’s ethnicity in 2022[16]. This indicates that the variety of ethnicity is not enough. It is suggested that hiring different ethnicities could be beneficial for racial profiling by encouraging more empathy to minorities and act as a check to prevent targeted minority abuse. Based on the nature of human beings, a human being tends to decide which racial group is more reliable through racial similarity. If the police officers come from the same racial background as the suspect, the suspect of the minority would communicate effectively and connect with the police officers[17]. In the same way, a certain racial group of police officers would not treat the duty of stop and search as ’only and own’ privilege compared to other racial groups as other racial groups also exercise equal police powers. Furthermore, it is important to note that the suspect is more likely cooperate with the police officers because they come from similar background.
The alternative way is suggested that there is a need for the UK to increase the efficiency of police complaints. In terms of the UK police complaints system, it is quite satisfying that the current structure of the UK police complaints system is more impartiality than the system in Hong Kong. For example, the citizens could complain about the police force through the Independent Office for Police Conduct directly instead of through the police force[18]. Furthermore, the Independent Office for Police Conduct could handle the review and appeals of the unsatisfied complaints. Although it is a near one-tier police complaints system, there are suggestions for improvement of the Independent Office for Police Conduct service. The House of Lords has suggested that the government should appoint a new and independent director of the Independent Office for Police Conduct [19]. This article proposes that there is a need for selecting an independent director to manage the operation of the Independent Office for Police Conduct. If the director of Independent Office for Police Conduct is a member of the police force, there is a high risk of concealment of police complaints. The members of police force tend to hide the police complaints to maintain the impression and reputation of police force. To ensure the check and balance, it is essential that the director of Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Last but not least, it is suggested the heavily armed force is not the key issue to the UK . The overall funding will increase by 7% compared with the funding in 2022 [20] and the police force is facing a budget cut by 2026[21]. Interestingly, the budget of the British police force is more likely to be undervalued compared with France’s and Hong Kong’s budget of police force. Apart from the budget cut, the amount of police firearms is the most appropriate indicator to reflect the situation of the police armed force. The recent report of the Home Office regarding the issue of police use of firearms shows that there has been a slight decrease in the number of police firearms operations where an armed response vehicle was the first or only response in England and Wales between 2019 and 2023, despite the highest point in 2019[22]. Although the number of armed response vehicles remained higher than in other types of operation, fatal police shooting happens rarely. For example, there have only been three cases of fatal shootings by the police force since 2018[23]. Overall, the UK police are less likely to abuse of powers despite the fact that the police force often use armed respo nse vehicle.
Conclusion: The Gentle Reminder to the UK Government
The UK government must review the issue of police violence more frequently in order to prevent wide-ranging excuses of excessive force. The situation of police brutality and clashes are a reflection of institutional values and disparity between citizens and police. The clashes are based on the long-term oppression of personal liberties and inefficient investigation of police conduct by third parties, such as the cases in France and Hong Kong. It is essential for the UK government to take into consideration that France's oppression of personal freedom is not in line with the oppression of personal liberties in Hong Kong. While the French government oppresses the individual right to liberty through racial discrimination, the Hong Kong government deprived the right to liberty by ignoring the independence of the Police Complaint System. By recruiting people of different races to be police officers, reviewing the budgets of police equipment and increasing the efficiency of the third-party police complaints system, those solutions would ensure the sufficient scrutiny of police complaints and the protection of personal liberty.
[1] London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime Police Voice Insights Q1 2023-2024 (London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, 2023)
[2] Home Office , ‘Police complaint allegations involving police officers by IOPC allegation type, England and Wales, cases finalised year ending 31 March 2022’ (Home Office 12 January 2023) <https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-misconduct-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2022/police-misconduct-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2022> accessed 26 Nov 2023.
[3] Jon Henley, ‘French police’s tendency to violence questioned after latest killing’ The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/30/french-police-tendency-to-violence-questioned-after-latest-killing (30 June 2023)
[4] Seydi and others v. France ECHR 35844/17
[5]European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Your rights matter: Police stops-Fundamental Rights Survey (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 2021)
[6] United Nations, ‘UN rights office calls on France to address ‘deep issues’ of racism in policing’ (United Nations, 30 June 2023) https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/06/1138247#:~:text=According%20to%20latest%20figures%20released,whom%20ten%20were%20shot%20dead assessed on 23 November 2023
[7] Corentin Lesueur, ‘ 'At least half of Paris crime is committed by foreigners': Where does Macron's claim come from?’ Le Monde( Paris, 23 April 2023) https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2022/11/01/at-least-half-of-paris-crime-is-committed-by-foreigners-where-does-macron-s-claim-come-from_6002508_8.html assessed 26 November 2023
[8] Lily Kuo ‘ ‘Where were the police?' Hong Kong outcry after masked thugs launch attack’ The Guardian (Hong Kong 22 July 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/22/where-were-the-police-hong-kong-outcry-after-masked-thugs-launch-attack assessed 2 December 2023
[9] Independent Police Complaints Council Incident Day – Sunday 21 July 2019 Yuen Long (IPCC 2020) vol 3, ch 10
[10] Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, ‘Hong Kong Police Force Rating- Per Poll’ (Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, 10 November 2022) https://www.pori.hk/pop-poll/disciplinary-force-en/x001.html?lang=en assessed 24 November 2023
[11] HKSAR v. Wong Cho Shing and Others [2015] DCCC980
[12] Independent Police Complaints Council, ‘Two-tier police complaints system’ (Independent Police Complaints Council) https://www.ipcc.gov.hk/en/what_we_do/two_tier_police.html assessed 25 November 2023
[13] Ministere Des Armees, ‘Defence Key Figures’ (Ministere Des Armees, December 2021)
[14] Tom Grundy, ‘Hong Kong Free Press Hong Kong Police Force spending & Budget for latest year’ Hong Kong Free Press (Hong Kong, 22 February 2023) https://hongkongfp.com/2023/02/22/hong-kong-budget-2023-police-equipment-budget-rises-59-despite-spending-just-8-5-of-2022-allocation/#:~:text=inHong%20Kong-,Hong%20Kong%20Budget%202023%3A%20Police%20equipment%20budget%20rises%2059%25%2C,the%202022%2D23%20financial%20year assessed 25 November 2023
[15] Independent Office for Police Conduct, Police complaints Statistics for England and Wales 2022/23 (Experimental statistics) (Independent Office for Police Conduct 2023)
[16] Home Office, ‘Police workforce’ (Home Office 26 May 2022) https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/workforce-and-business/workforce-diversity/police-workforce/latest#:~:text=out%20of%20police%20officers%20whose%20ethnicity%20was%20known%2C%20white%20people,9.3%25%20of%20the%20general%20population assessed 25 November 2023
[17] Rod K. Brunson and Jacinta M. Gau, ‘Officer race versus macro-level context: A test of competing hypotheses about black citizens’ experiences with and perceptions of black police officers’ [2005] Crime & Delinquency, 61(2), pp.213-242.
[18] Independent Office for Police Conduct, ‘A guide to the complaints process’ (Independent Office for Police Conduct) https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/complaints/guide-to-complaints-process assessed 26 November 2023
[19] Home Affairs Committee, Police conduct and complaints: Government Response to the Committee’s Sixth Report HC 1264 (House of Commons 2022) 2
[20] Home Office, ‘Police funding for England and Wales 2015 to 2023’ (Home Office 12 July 2022) https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-funding-for-england-and-wales-2015-to-2023/police-funding-for-england-and-wales-2015-to-2023 assessed 26 November 2023
[21] Paul Jacques, ‘Police forces facing £700m budget shortfall by 2026, warns Unison’ Police Professional (Trowbridge, 16 June 2023) https://www.policeprofessional.com/news/police-forces-facing-700m-budget-shortfall-by-2026-warns-unison/ assessed 26 November 2023
[22] Home Office, ’Police use of firearms statistics, England and Wales: April 2022 to March 2023’ (Home Office, 13 July 2023) https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-use-of-firearms-statistics-england-and-wales-april-2022-to-march-2023/police-use-of-firearms-statistics-england-and-wales-april-2022-to-march-2023 accessed 25 November 2023
[23] Inquest, ‘Fatal police shootings England and Wales 2013-2022 ‘ (Inquest, 24 November 2023) https://www.inquest.org.uk/fatal-police-shootings assessed 01 December 2023