Browse content similar to 11/04/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Delays investigating police racism - a former Bedfordshire officer | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
calls for action on his three-year-old case. | :00:00. | :00:11. | |
Clearing landmines from warzones - the Cambridgeshire company helping | :00:12. | :00:13. | |
And changeable weather on the way. I will have all the details. | :00:14. | :00:29. | |
First tonight, criticism over delays in investigating racial | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
discrimination in one of our police forces. | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
In 2014 Harmit Bahra was awarded more than ?200 ,000 after taking | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
The court agreed he'd been discriminated against | :00:41. | :00:46. | |
But, three years on, and the Independent Police | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
Complaints Commission is still investigating 15 police | :00:51. | :00:53. | |
Harmit Bahra passed his inspector's exam on the first attempt, | :00:54. | :01:02. | |
He says that discrimination he faced cheated him out of his ambitions. | :01:03. | :01:11. | |
I would've been the first Indian police officer who made it | :01:12. | :01:14. | |
No-one can understand the damage it has done. | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
It damaged me as a person, it damaged me as a police officer | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
and the reputation of me as a police officer. | :01:25. | :01:27. | |
An employment tribunal in 2014 found that Sergeant Bahra | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
had been discriminated against by Bedfordshire Police | :01:32. | :01:33. | |
11 police officers of chief inspector rank | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
and above, and four police staff, are currently under | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
investigation by the IPCC for suspected gross misconduct. | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
So now they have retired, if they say sorry, we're not | :01:47. | :01:53. | |
going to get involved, we're not interested, | :01:54. | :01:55. | |
Even when the IPCC finish their investigation, they refer it | :01:56. | :02:02. | |
back to Bedfordshire Police as the appropriate authority, so | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
no matter what the IPCC say, it will go back to Jon Boutcher, | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
if he says I am not interested, he still doesn't have | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
Speaking on Look East last week, the Chief Constable Jon Boutcher | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
wouldn't be drawn on whether an investigation into the 11 senior | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
officers was indicative of a wider problem. | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
That smacks of institutional racism, doesn't it? | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
The investigation needs to take its course. | :02:32. | :02:32. | |
It might find that there's not been any inappropriate behaviours. | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
The IPCC told us that the reason their investigation is taking | :02:37. | :02:38. | |
so long is that it has been complex and resource intensive. | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
It has now reached a significant stage and they are working | :02:44. | :02:45. | |
What do you think of Bedfordshire Police's current | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
recruitment drive to bring in more ethnic minority | :02:52. | :02:53. | |
They were having recruiting drives then. | :02:54. | :03:03. | |
The reason they do not achieve anything in 30 years | :03:04. | :03:05. | |
That is why ethnic minorities cannot progress, | :03:06. | :03:15. | |
Bedfordshire Police told us that they are frustrated by the length | :03:16. | :03:22. | |
of the investigation into Harmit Bahra's case. | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
Well, Inspector Mike Chand from Bedfordshire Police campaigns | :03:27. | :03:35. | |
to get more black and ethnic minority officers in the force. | :03:36. | :03:38. | |
I asked him if more needs to be done to promote | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
officers like Harmit Bahra to the senior ranks. | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
Historically and nationally, the police, I feel, haven't done | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
enough to first of all keep BME candidates, officers | :03:52. | :03:54. | |
The Government introduced positive action but I think as yet, | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
no force has taken positivity up so I think it's an area that | :04:01. | :04:03. | |
We're talking today about a case where the man won his tribunal | :04:04. | :04:09. | |
three years ago and he claimed that there was an institutional | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
racism acting against him that meant he couldn't get promotion. | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
Do you think that perception is a bad thing for people thinking | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
Well, first of all, I can't comment on a live case so I won't. | :04:21. | :04:27. | |
However, talking about the police force in general, the perception BME | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
people have of the police force is actually they could be | :04:33. | :04:43. | |
racist and historically, there has been proven to be racism | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
and that generally is what people perceive it to be. | :04:47. | :04:48. | |
However, times have changed, people are now joining the system, | :04:49. | :04:50. | |
learning about the system and I think going ahead, | :04:51. | :04:53. | |
if it doesn't change, there'll be some serious issues | :04:54. | :04:55. | |
What more would you like to see done in terms of recruitment, | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
retention and progression of BME officers? | :05:00. | :05:01. | |
Well, I'd like all police forces to take up the option of positive | :05:02. | :05:04. | |
At the end of the day, the law's been made, | :05:05. | :05:14. | |
rules have been engaged by the government in order | :05:15. | :05:16. | |
to solve these issues and if we do not make use of them, | :05:17. | :05:19. | |
then what's the point of having them there? | :05:20. | :05:21. | |
The demographics of society have changed. | :05:22. | :05:22. | |
If the police forces don't change with them, | :05:23. | :05:25. | |
then I can say they won't be doing the service that the public require. | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
It's not just about the numbers and statistics, is it? | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
Why is it important that the police force reflect | :05:33. | :05:34. | |
Well, ultimately the public are the police and the | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
If we're not reflecting our communities then how can | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
I mean, ultimately that's the goal of any police force, to serve | :05:47. | :05:54. | |
communities and if communities are not being served | :05:55. | :05:56. | |
because actually there's no-one that looks like them, | :05:57. | :05:58. | |
talks like them, understands their culture, then how can | :05:59. | :06:01. | |
you possibly reflect them and how can you serve them? | :06:02. | :06:04. | |
People need to understand that you need BME minorities | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
within the executive ranks so they can make those | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
informed decisions on cultures and communities. | :06:12. | :06:13. | |
Without that, you are simply going to get a biased view of the world | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
A taxi driver has been cleared of causing the death of Northampton | :06:19. | :06:27. | |
The 38-year-old suffered fatal head injuries after his motorbike | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
was involved in a crash with a car in London in August 2015. | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
The cab driver, Abdul Qayyum, from Slough in Berkshire, | :06:36. | :06:37. | |
was today found not guilty of causing death | :06:38. | :06:40. | |
Police are appealing for witnesses after thieves used a JCB digger | :06:41. | :06:49. | |
to steal a cash machine from a Cambridgeshire | :06:50. | :06:51. | |
Four men wearing balaclavas used the digger to destroy | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
the wall of the Co-Op store in Longstanton High Street | :06:56. | :06:58. | |
They removed the cash machine from the building and then left | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
A Cambridgeshire engineering company is helping Prince Harry's charity | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
The Halo Trust in the global fight against landmines. | :07:09. | :07:10. | |
Armtrak, who are based in Burwell, build specialist mine | :07:11. | :07:13. | |
They're used all over the world to remove hidden explosive | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
There are thought to be more than a million mines scattered | :07:19. | :07:28. | |
Some left over from distant wars, many the result | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
The cost to human life is catastrophic. | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
Across the globe, mines kill over 800 people every month. | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
An international mine banning treaty was introduced 20 years ago, | :07:44. | :07:45. | |
effectively stopping the use of all antipersonnel mines. | :07:46. | :07:49. | |
Now, although some states still do use and produce them, | :07:50. | :07:53. | |
the number's fallen dramatically thanks mainly to this treaty. | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
But perhaps more importantly, tens of millions of mines have | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
been cleared, thanks, in part, to these machines | :08:00. | :08:02. | |
It's got titanium spikes which then rips up the ground. | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
Any mine which is underneath it, it will either explode it | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
As well as these armoured tractors, Armtrak specialise | :08:12. | :08:18. | |
There's too many landmines, it's going to take many | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
As quick as we clear them, other countries are still laying | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
We're making a change, slowly, but not fast enough and every | :08:28. | :08:33. | |
Every one of these machines out there hopefully | :08:34. | :08:36. | |
Armtrac are currently preparing one of these machines | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
for Prince Harry's charity, The Halo Trust. | :08:42. | :08:43. | |
Last week, the prince pledged to continue his mother's legacy | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
My mother had been shocked and appalled by the impact that | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
landmines were having on incredibly vulnerable people, | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
She didn't understand why more people were not willing to address | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
She refused to accept that these destructive weapons should be left | :09:02. | :09:08. | |
where they were just because they were perceived as too | :09:09. | :09:11. | |
They cost tens of thousands to build but with the weak pound, | :09:12. | :09:19. | |
However, the real value is in lives saved. | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
Jozef Hall, BBC Look East, Cambridgeshire. | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have been in Bedfordshire today | :09:31. | :09:32. | |
to open the new Elephant Care Centre at Whipsnade Zoo. | :09:33. | :09:35. | |
As well as meeting the keepers, the royal couple met Donna | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
The ?2 million facility will house nine Asian elephants | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
Prince Philip opened the original elephant | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
The ZSL charity which runs the zoo, and of which the Queen is a patron, | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
is involved in more than 50 conservation programmes around | :09:54. | :09:55. | |
the world, to ensure elephants and humans can coexist peacefully. | :09:56. | :09:58. | |
The centre will open to the public on Wednesday. | :09:59. | :10:00. | |
I'll leave you with the weather from Alex. | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
Clear skies across some of the region at the moment, but increasing | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
amounts of cloud coming in from the north-west as we go through the | :10:09. | :10:11. | |
night, so a milder night night compared with last night, and the | :10:12. | :10:16. | |
possibility of the odd spot of rain by the end of the night. These are | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
the sorts of temperatures we can end the night on, so a milder start to | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
the day tomorrow. A weather system is coming from the north-west | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
bringing cold air behind it and a little bit of rain, but not a huge | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
amount. We start the day with cloudy conditions, the middle of the day | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
will be brighter and in that brightness we could get highs of 14 | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
degrees, but sometimes limited compared with today. As the day goes | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
on, this patchy rain moves in from the north-west, but for some parts | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
of the region it will stay dry. There are conditions follow and a | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
cold night follows as well. Here is the outlook. | :10:56. | :11:04. | |
On Sunday, on the cool side for East itself. | :11:05. | :11:12. | |
Good evening. Grace of all it -- it is greatest of all in Scotland. A | :11:13. | :11:25. | |
weather front is on the move. The rain edging down into south-western | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
parts of Scotland and northern Ireland. Much of England and Wales | :11:30. | :11:36. | |
will have a dry note but not quite as Chile to start tomorrow. Let's | :11:37. | :11:39. | |
deal with the wet weather first thing tomorrow. It will be a damp | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
start for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Heaviest rain on the hills | :11:44. | :11:51. | |
towards the coast and east of the Pennines, not too much rain at | :11:52. | :11:53. |