Policing Chinese Communities in London; The Metropolitan Police Service’s Construction of a Chinese Community.

Much writing on policing and minority ethnic groups in the UK has focused upon relations between the police and ‘black’ or ‘Asian’ groups in comparison with the ‘white’ majority. However, growing awareness of ethnic complexity in Britain has highlighted the need for a more detailed and extensive analysis of police-ethnic minority relations that takes greater account of ethnic diversity. In particular, the growing complexity of ethnic relations in Britain requires an analysis of processes of racialisation within policing with regard to smaller, less visible and relatively unengaged minority ethnic groups. This paper presents data and findings from my doctoral research aimed at examining how the MPS construct their notion of London’s Chinese community, and the implications of this for community policing. The research aims to explore what factors influence the MPS construction of a Chinese community and how this construction shapes (and is shaped by) operational policing. This MPS’ vision of the Chinese community – as it emerges in policy documents and interviews with operational officers – is tested critically against perspectives drawn from different elements of this purported community. The research draws upon data from MPS and Metropolitan Police Authority, documentary analysis, secondary data analysis, and semi-structured interviews and focus groups with serving officers and members of Chinese groups in London. This paper suggests that Chinese communities remain on the periphery of service provision due in part to cultural assumptions about Chinese identity and simplistic notions of community.