Parts of the UK are becoming no-go areas for police because minority communities are operating their own justice systems, according to the Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
The rise in ‘community justice’ means
crimes as serious as murder and sexual abuse are going unreported – a
situation reminiscent of Belfast in the height of the Troubles.
Tom
Winsor said police officers were simply never called to some
neighbourhoods, where law-abiding people rather than criminals
administer their own form of justice
He said: ‘There are some communities
born under other skies who will not involve the police at all. I am
reluctant to name the communities in question, but there are communities
from other cultures who would prefer to police themselves.
‘There
are cities in the Midlands where the police never go because they are
never called. They never hear of any trouble because the community deals
with that on its own.
‘It’s not that the police are afraid
to go into these areas or don’t want to go into those areas,’ he said.
‘But if the police don’t get calls for help then, of course, they won’t
know what’s going on.’
Honour
killings, domestic violence, sexual abuse of children and female
genital mutilations are some of the offences that are believed to be
unreported in some cities.
Last
December, three members of a self-styled ‘Muslim Patrol’ vigilante
group were jailed for harassing, intimidating and assaulting people in
East London while claiming they were enforcing sharia law.
In an interview with The Times, Mr
Winsor said: ‘It could be anything. [Honour killings] are the most
extreme case. That is murder. There is no honour in it.’ Tory MP Douglas
Carswell said the rising number of unreported crimes was a damning
indictment of our police.
He
told the Mail last night: ‘Directly elected police commissioners are an
attempt to give people a direct say over the way people are policed.
Elsewhere the administering of justice often is ineffective and there is
a great deal of incompetence in the system.
‘People
don’t feel they can count on their police. Instead of placing blame
with ethnic minorities, we should ask what it is that is wrong with the
criminal justice system.’
Although
Mr Winsor did not specifically refer to any ethnic group, there have
been growing concerns over the emergence of sharia courts in some Muslim
communities.
Senior police
officers said they disagreed with the description given by Mr Winsor,
who became chief inspector in October 2012. He is the first person from a
non-police background to hold the post.
But
Chris Sims, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, said: ‘I don’t
know if he’s talking about Birmingham, but I have only had one
conversation with him since he took office and it wasn’t about this.
‘His
characterisation of these communities as born under other skies is just
wrong. Many members of communities in Birmingham are British-born and I
find that a very odd expression.’
Mr Winsor insisted that public trust in the police needed to be restored for a functioning justice system.
He said the police ‘are not a paramilitary force – they are citizens in uniform’.
A
spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said: ‘We all rely on the
police to protect our communities and this can be only done through full
co-operation and partnership.
‘Co-operation is particularly important for Muslim communities who have experienced a rise in Islamophobic hate crimes.’
