Stay Cool, Hang Loose, Admit Nothing 1 : Race, Intergroup Contact, and Public-Police Relations Anja Eller University of St Andrews Dominic Abrams, G. Tendayi Viki, Dionne A. Imara, and Shafick Peerbux University of Kent Drawing on the contact hypothesis of Allport (1954) and Pettigrew (1998) we exam- ined whether public-police contact, among White and Black university students in Britain, mediated between participant race and perceived racism of police and cooperation with police, respectively. Study 1 (N = 105) showed this to be the case for quality, but not quantity of contact. High-quality contact mitigated the negative effects of being Black on greater perceived racism and lower cooperation. Study 2 (N = 130) assessed a general view of police and desired closeness to police as depen- dent variables and investigated the moderating potential of racial identification. Higher-quality and lower quantity of contact were associated with a more positive view of police and higher desired closeness. Identification moderated the effects of race on quantity of contact, view of police, and desired closeness, with negative effects driven by high identification. The police are often depicted as racist, as highlighted by salient instances of unfavorable treatment by police of minority groups. Police racism is problematic in several multiracial societies, including the UK, United States, and Australia (Banton, 1994; Byron, 2001; Wortley & Homel, 1995). For example, in the USA ‘‘racial profil- ing’’, the stopping and searching of people from parti- cular racial groups, has become so pervasive that it is commonly referred to as walking, driving, or even breathing ‘‘while black or brown’’ (Shuford, 2005). This targeting of minority groups has arguably even been intensified in the wake of post-9=11 legislation, such as the Patriot Act (Biemer & Brachear, 2003). In England and Wales, during 2002=2003 Black people were six times more likely to be ‘‘stopped and searched’’ 2 by the police than White people (Home Office, 2004). In 1993 Stephen Lawrence, a Black teenager, was murdered by a group of youths in South London. The subsequent Macpherson inquiry (Macpherson, 1999) concluded that London’s police service was riddled with ‘‘pernicious and persistent institutional racism’’ (par. 6.46). Since then other inquiries have reached similar conclusions (Stevens, 2004). It appears that racism and differential treatment of minority groups exist on an institutional level in Ameri- ca’s and Britain’s police forces. This is clearly perceived 1 This refers to Basement 5, arguably the first black punk-inspired rock band, often described as hugely influential and groundbreaking. Starting out in London around 1978, ‘The Basements’ were an innova- tive and highly original post-punk group who created a kind of politi- cally charged, futurist dub. The lyrics were an attempt to reflect the situation of young people in Britain in the era of Thatcherism, high unemployment, strikes, racism, and working-class poverty (http:// profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid =137956540). Correspondence should be addressed to Anja Eller, School of Psy- chology, St. Mary’s College, South Street, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK. E-mail: Anja.Eller@st-andrews.ac.uk 2 In the UK, the police have special powers to ‘stop and search’ individuals who they suspect of having committed a crime. In prin- ciple, the police can only detain members of the public in order to carry out a search when certain conditions have been met (Home Office, 2004). BASIC AND APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, 29(3), 213–224 Copyright # 2007, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.