Recommendations on Policing in Multi-Ethnic Societies violence between members of different ethnic groups. Whole communities, rather than just individuals, may experience victimisation when crimes motivated by ethnic hatred occur, and police should recognize the possible need to provide support and protection at a community rather than solely an individual or family level. Where appropriate, police should undertake risk assessments for this purpose. VI. PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT OF CONFLICT 21. Police should be tasked and trained to play a proactive role in developing a relationship with minorities aimed at identifying and if possible reducing tensions which can lead to inter-ethnic conflicts. As stated in the Introduction, the HCNM has identified the police as having a key role to play in the prevention of ethnic conflict. This arises from a number of factors: the responsibility of the police for the maintenance of public order and tranquillity, the powers possessed by the police for this purpose, the intelligence available to the police about tensions or incidents that could give rise to ethnic conflict, and the professional skills that can be employed by police to help to ensure that such tensions and incidents do not actually develop into overt physical violence between different ethnic groups. It is often supposed that the responsibility of the police with regard to ethnic conflict is limited to responding to actual incidents of overt conflict: to restoring order and to bringing to justice those in breach of the law. This view fails to appreciate the importance of the role of police at earlier stages in the potential development of such conflict, and also in the de-escalation of tensions between ethnic groups once public order has been restored. Of course, the police do not have exclusive responsibility for the prevention of such conflict and for taking remedial action, but in co-operation with other public authorities and with representatives of civic society they can play a crucial role. A key contribution which the police can make to the prevention of ethnic conflict is monitoring the levels of tension between ethnic groups, on the basis of evidence and systematic indicators. The evidence should consist of (a) the number and seriousness of specific incidents (e.g. threats or inter-personal violence) between persons belonging to different groups that have potential for escalation, and (b) intelligence derived from community sources about general levels of inter-ethnic animosity within 39