The police force remains "institutionally racist" in some areas, a trend which discourages black and ethnic minorities and causes them to leave in greater numbers than their white counterparts, the author of a long-awaited report said today.

Sir David Calvert-Smith, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, said diversity training which was introduced in the wake of the Macpherson Inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence was seen by some officers - including some of those responsible for providing it - as a "politically correct" add-on.

One trainee reported an instructor at a police training college telling the class: “You’ve done the diversity. That’s a load of b***s. Now let’s get on with the real stuff.”

Speaking ahead of the publication of the Commission for Racial Equality's (CRE) investigation into forces in England and Wales, Sir David said that six years after the report into the death of Stephen Lawrence, "institutional racism" was still a problem in the police.

The CRE report was commissioned in October 2003 in the wake of the BBC documentary The Secret Policeman, which highlighted racist behaviour among police recruits in several forces.

Some senior officers were "pretty poor managers" and believed that they need pay only lip-service to the need for racial equality, while some recruits were joining the police in order to bully people, he said.

Last June, the CRE’s interim report concluded that diversity training for police officers may have simply driven discrimination underground and created a new breed of "stealth racist".

Sir David this morning told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We found that although there had been great strides made in some areas within the police service since the Lawrence report, there are still areas which need substantial improvement in order to create the kind of multi-ethnic police force we need to police a multi-ethnic society.

"We think the minority of ethnic officers who do join the service leave in greater numbers that their white counterparts and that is in part due to the treatment they receive while they are there."

Asked whether Sir William Macpherson’s allegation of "institutional racism" in the Lawrence report still applied, Sir David told Today: "There are areas of the police service in which that phrase could probably still be used. I think that cultures do take a long time to change.

"There are still, I’m afraid, a number of people at middle management level who think - wrongly, I hope - that their bosses are mouthing political correctness, but not actually believing it, and that it is perfectly OK for them to go on behaving in the same sorts of ways that they always have."

Chief constables had to "relentlessly reiterate" the racial equality message in order to get it through to their officers, said Sir David.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Unlocking the cruellest prison
• Prince Charles named in £81m court battle