Many of the problems of policing around the world can be traced back to the legacy of colonial control, says Andrew Brooks
From the frozen sidewalks of Minneapolis to the hot streets of Sydney, recent times have witnessed a dramatic rise in public criticism of policing. Police services have been labelled as anti-democratic and coercive. Britain’s undercover political policing units have faced claims of targeting ideologies rather than crime prevention. In Hong Kong, police have used violent tactics to quash peaceful pro-democracy campaigns, and many Americans believe unaccountable ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) police units have actively terrorised neighbourhoods.
How can we explain these widespread problems in policing across different geographies? Why, in particular, is it that when forces engage with politically charged issues and racial minorities, they quickly turn to violence and oppression?
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The enduring legacies of colonialism are a big part of this global problem. The zenith of decolonisation was back in 1960 when 17 nations gained their freedom. Within the following two decades, most remaining colonised territories reached political independence. Why then are events of decades or centuries ago (America gained independence in 1776) still relevant to policing in the present day?
Although the USA has been independent for 250 years, it only became a true democracy once the civil rights movement accomplished its major goals in the late 1960s. Even with the end of segregation and parity in the face of the law for all citizens, systemic patterns of discrimination persisted. Indeed, globally, most, if not all, societies are still living through comparable processes of decolonisation.
A term for these inequalities is ‘coloniality’, which, simply put, is the endurance of hierarchies of power established during colonialism. Often coloniality persists today as subtle forms of social control or bias. This could include privileging certain individuals in job interviews or school places by selecting the ‘white’ sounding names in a list of candidates, or considering the food, music and fashions of other groups as inferior to the hegemony (or primacy) of Euro-centric culture.
While most systemic patterns of coloniality are subtle, policing can be visceral. The phrase ‘institutionally racist’ has been synonymous with many police forces. Part of the explanation for this association lies in the colonial origins of modern policing.
The Metropolitan Police Service, founded in London in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel, is widely considered the first modern, professional police force. However, Scotland Yard wasn’t the real genesis of today’s police services. Peel established the prototype modern police force with the colonial Irish Peace Preservation Force in 1814, which was formalised into the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1822. As the first centralised and nationalised police force in the British Empire, it became a model for colonial-style policing around the world.
Across the lifespan of the British empire, colonial models of policing, with militaristic approaches, would be exported to new territories. For instance, in 1919, British veterans of the First World War were drafted into the Royal Irish Constabulary to suppress rebellion as Ireland fought for independence. Former soldiers deployed brutal tactics against Irish civilians, who were then widely considered to be a culturally inferior race. By 1922, the force was disbanding, but about 650 British and Irish ex-police were recruited to serve in a new British Palestine Gendarmerie. This nucleus played a major role in the racialised policing of Palestine, importing practices from Ireland and training Jewish officers who would serve in independent Israel.
In colonial-era Hong Kong, British police officers commanded local constables. Many Brits remained after Hong Kong reintegrated with China. Since the 1998 handover, the suppression of pro-democratic movements has dominated political life. The police, once seen as a professional and accountable service, have evolved their colonial-era practices and played an active role in a heavily securitised response to civil unrest.
The examples from Ireland and Palestine demonstrate how colonial policing fostered racism, while the Hong Kong experience illustrates how police can be malleable as they adapt to serve new dominant political hierarchies. Both illustrate the enduring legacy of colonialism.
What they have in common with ICE policing operations in Minneapolis is that all these forces act like a militarised, distinct group that is separate from local people and operate more akin to a foreign army rather than as members of a community that they serve.
