When it comes to fighting homophobic hate crime and other related jobs (
www.gumtree.com ) in the criminal justice system, no one knows more than Paul Cahill M.B.E, Chairman of the Gay Police Association (GPA). Britain’s most prominent gay police officer is highly regarded for his experience and expertise in the field.
The GPA works towards equal opportunities for gay police service employees, and promotes better relations between the police service and the gay community.
Paul believes that there is still work to be done within the police service when it comes to equal opportunities and dealing with hate crime. He says: “There are not many reports of police incompetence or negligence where homophobic hate crime is involved in the public domain.
“Neither is there much in the gay press, and that is an anomaly - that the community thinks the problem is sorted and done, when in fact it’s not. We still have a lot of work to do on that front.”
The relationship between the police and the GPA has changed beyond recognition in the past 10 years. For example, in 1994 the police rejected the help of the GPA when they were investigating the murders perpetrated by serial killer Colin Ireland.
Paul explains: “The killings went on, and three more people died. Then there was a community backlash and the GPA was finally brought in to help.”
He describes the Brick Lane nail bombings as a real turning point in relations between the police service and the GPA. He says: “We asked the police to protect the gay community, because we thought they would be targeted next.
“But the police made no real recognition of the fact that that could happen, and it was a real shock to the service when it did. It was like they’d finally realised that hate is a virus that mutates, which jumps from one organism to another. From then on, the GPA has been very heavily involved with the police.”
The GPA was formally brought in only an hour after the Soho bombings in 1999, in which three people were killed and dozens injured. Now the GPA is a valued part of the system.
Paul describes this as a “watershed moment” that was extremely significant in terms of changing the attitudes of the police.
Currently, if the police suspect that a crime is motivated by homophobia, they will form a Gold Group, which is a collection of people from different organisations within the police service who trawl through the case trying to find missing leads. They will use any opportunity to find further evidence.
They will also look at fresh strategies and try to get the gay press involved at an early stage. This very structured approach to an investigation is something which rarely happened before 1999.
Legally, victims of homophobic hate crime are at a major disadvantage. The Home Office collates all statistics on racially motivated hate crimes, and every chief police officer must submit their own clear up rates.
Currently, if someone intentionally damages another person’s vehicle because the owner of the vehicle is black, then they can be prosecuted for aggravated criminal damage. But for crimes motivated by homophobia, the Home Office does not collect every statistic. Nor can a homophobic offender be prosecuted for aggravated crimes.
As far as Paul is concerned, this situation directly discriminates against gay people. He blames the attitudes of society, and believes that there is a hierarchy in diversity which sees some vulnerable communities taken less seriously than others.
Paul says: “For example, take the incident with Shilpa Shetty on Big Brother recently. There was a phenomenal public outcry to a few remarks which may have been racist, but were quite ambiguous.
“Whereas, if you open a tabloid newspaper on any day of the week, you are almost guaranteed to find direct homophobia. But nobody complains about that, especially when religious groups are involved.”
We still have a long way to go in terms of tackling homophobic hate crime, and the next logical step is for the Home Office to start collecting all statistics and for forcing the police to submit their clear up rates. As Paul Cahill says, “until that happens, society will never take homophobia as seriously as they take racism.”
FURTHER INFORMATION:
The Gay Police Association
www.gay.police.uk
IMAGE: Paul Cahill speaking at the European Gay Police Conference.
