Notes on policing, racism and the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK

Abstract

This commentary excerpts from the research report ‘A threat to public safety: policing, racism and the Covid-19 pandemic’, carried out by the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) and published by the Institute of Race Relations in September 2021. One of the only pieces of research based on the experiences of the policed and their testimonies, the report suggests that policing during the Covid-19 pandemic undermines public health measures whilst disproportionately targeting Black and Minority Ethnic communities in the UK. The authors raise concerns about the policing of the pandemic and show that racially minoritised communities have been most harshly affected – being more likely to be stopped by the police, threatened or subject to police violence and falsely accused of rule-breaking and wrong-doing. The report argues that lockdown conditions, new police powers, and histories of institutionally racist policing have combined to pose a threat to already over-policed communities and the most marginalised and vulnerable sections of society.