Policing Work Presented in Brussels

08/05/2010

Paul Smyth, the Director of Public Achievement has just given a presentation to the European Network Against Racism in Brussels. The special meeting is on ethnic profiling by the police, and Paul has been asked to present on our recent film and research project - "Beyond the Margins - Building Trust in Policing With Young People".

The organisers are particularly interested in the methodology we used for reaching 'hard to reach' groups of young people - through the creation of the film and the gathering of survey data. The project was done under the auspices of Achieve Enterprises (our trading arm), and in collaboration with the Institute for Conflict Research (ICR). It was funded by the Reconciliation Fund of the Irish Government and by the Community Relations Council.

Speaking about the report, Paul said, "Much has been achieved in Northern Ireland in terms of the huge reforms to policing and protection of the rights of citizens, but much remains to be done to ensure that young people benefit fully from this new environment. Having good structures is not enough if young people have little faith in those structures. There are cultural changes that are needed to follow the structural ones."

The event in Brussels is a collaboration between ENAR and the Open Society Justice Initiative. The "Beyond the Margins" report can be downloaded from our publications section.

PUBLIC DISCUSSION