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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the use of spit guards by police forces in the UK and to make recommendations regarding an evidence-based approach to decisions related to the use of such equipment. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based upon an examination of a range of primary source material, secondary sources and grey literature. Findings Although the use of spit guards can be justified by factors that include the need to protect police officers from contracting serious infectious diseases, there are a number of problems that concern ethical policing and human rights. Concerns arise when spit guards are deployed against vulnerable individuals, are used offensively rather than defensively and when such equipment is deployed disproportionately against persons from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities. Additionally, the image of the police may suffer if spit guards are accompanied by the use of excessive force which may be perceived as an abuse of police power. Practical implications The paper makes recommendations that a comprehensive evidence base is required to assist practitioners to make informed decisions regarding the deployment of spit guards. This evidence base should include the extent to which officers are spat at, medical evidence relating to spitting and the transmission of serious diseases, the views of the public concerning the deployment of spit guards and estimations as to whether such equipment will deter spitting by suspects of crime. Originality/value This paper provides an original academic contribution to the ongoing debate on the use of spit guards within policing. In particular, it brings together a wide range of material that relates to this topic and presents it as a coherent set of arguments located in a single source.

This chapter examines accusations of discriminatory policing during the 1970s and 1980s within Britain. It addresses the communal response to what was seen as the systematic violation of human rights that culminated with the 1981 Brixton riots. The chapter discusses the subsequent Scarman Inquiry into the disturbances and the legislation that was in its wake. The chapter concludes with an examination of efforts undertaken to measure the extent of racial attacks and harassment.

The focus of this chapter will be on the manifestation of racially motivated hate crime from the start of the twentieth century until the early 1960s. The chapter examines the continuing political activity of Africans and Indians within Britain at the commencement of this period and highlights continuing hostility and discrimination faced by immigrants on British soil and within British vessels. The chapter discusses far-right political efforts to limit Jewish immigration and legislative action taken by the state to achieve immigration and access control alongside residency and citizenship restrictions for ‘undesirable’ migrants. The chapter then addresses the changing fortune of Black and Asian migrants with the onset of war and explores Britain’s history of social and political disorder during this period that prompted the passing of the 1936 Public Order Act. The chapter considers the political action and rising political consciousness of Britain’s black and Asian communities and their readiness to embrace liberal values to pursue equality, democracy, and human rights for all. Against this background, the chapter discusses the creation of the current liberal framework of international order and the gradual embedding of liberal values and human rights. The migration of persons from the New Commonwealth after 1948 witnessed further anti-black rioting and subsequent political action to secure black rights and to improve race relations. A tension was consequently evident between action to counter discrimination and measures to achieve immigration control. The final section of the chapter addresses the penetration of these themes within an evolving politics of hate, where immigration control served as an aspect of political campaigning, labour union agitation, state legislation, and far-right extremism.

Chapter 6 addressed the intensification of Islamophobia that occurred against a historical background of discrimination and prejudice towards Indians, Asians, and Muslims within the United Kingdom. It highlighted how a series of disturbances at the end of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first century underpinned efforts to strengthen social cohesion and develop a new British identity. The present chapter examines the existence of extremist ideologies within Britain. While the government accepted the need to address extremist groups and extremist ideologies within previous policy discourse, here the focus will be extended to include extremist far right and left wing political parties within Britain and also address the penetration of illiberal thought within populist narratives and media discourse. The present chapter consequently feeds into and informs Chapter 8 that will examine the salience of illiberal thought during the lead-up to the 2016 referendum campaign and thereafter.

This chapter will consider the conceptualisation of hate crime and hate incidents within the UK. It seeks to locate hate crime within an historic framework by considering the diverse ways in which racism was manifested in British society and the underlying reasons for the concerns that were articulated. This discussion forms the background for a more detailed discussion of hate crime and its underlying causes in recent history.

The hate crime discussed in the previous two chapters was primarily based on racial hatred, which perpetrators defined as based on the colour of a victim’s skin. While not entirely new, during the early years of the twenty-first-century prejudice based on religious identity increased in significance. This was directed at the Muslim faith, a phenomenon referred to as ‘Islamophobia’ This chapter will evaluate policy initiatives that were undertaken to promote the social cohesion agenda (which was put forward in the wake of disturbances that occurred in towns in Northern England in 2001) and analyse how this agenda was influenced by terrorism associated with Islamic extremism in the wake of 9/11 in the United States and related episodes in the UK including the London bombings in 2005.

This chapter examines evidence of racially and religiously motivated discrimination and abuse in the wake of the Race Relations Act 1965. It then examines communal responses to racism and hate crime amidst further legislative action towards immigration control and the emergence of extremist rhetoric from political parties in the UK. It will be seen that repressive measures to restrict immigration were presented to the British public as a means to further race relations. These measures, it will be suggested, remained underpinned by modernist assumptions regarding the destabilising effect of immigration upon social and political order, couched in the language of competition for scarce resources. This rhetoric however masked continuing anxiety regarding the political and ideological threat posed by immigrant groups and their descendants, amidst an increasing awareness regarding the interdependency of foreign policy and home affairs.

This chapter will discuss those aspects of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act that are relevant to hate crime and will analyse the Macpherson report, discussing its main recommendations and their implementation, against the background of racial violence in the 1990s. In particular, the chapter examines the concept of institutional racism, a phrase that acknowledged the existence of systematic institutional illiberalism and the violation of human rights across the criminal justice system, and will discuss the effectiveness of initiatives that sought to address this problem.

This chapter details the UK response to hate crime following the change in government from 2010. The chapter addresses continuing social and political unrest within Britain, including the 2011 Riots, the 2016 referendum campaign to leave the European Union and continuing terrorist threats experienced on British soil and internationally.

The previous chapter outlined the challenges that arose in the post-Brexit period for tackling hate crime. This concluding chapter examines the diverse approaches and agendas that underpin contemporary hate crime policy and summarises the government’s present approach to prevent and tackle hate crime.

This article reports on a research project undertaken to assess the implications and consequences of the Comprehensive Spending Review and associated Force Change Programmes upon the female police workforce in England and Wales, alongside wider policing reforms across the UK. The research examines the views of female and male police officers and staff with a view to updating and reviewing evidence of progress in relation to the continued development and achievement of the gender agenda aims (BAWP, 2006, The Gender Agenda 2. London) and the Home Office 2010 report ‘Assessment of Women in the Police Service’. Focus groups, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were undertaken between November 2012 and June 2013, across 14 force areas, in addition to national policing bodies, local and national representative staff support associations, and diversity and equality practitioners. The findings underpin the recommendations Gender Agenda 3 launched in October 2014 by the British Association for Women in Policing.