Figures on diversity in the police service were released by the College of Policing at the National Black Police Association conference in London.
Date – 31st October 2014
By – Helena Hickey – Police Oracle
One in four new recruits into the Police Service must be from a black or ethnic minority community if policing is to be truly representative of the population in ten years’ time, according to a senior officer.
Speaking at the National Black Police Association’s (NBPA) annual conference, Assistant Chief Constable Richard Bennett said the service needs to recruit 17,000 BME officers to be representative of the population by 2024. Currently, just five per cent of the 127,000 police officers in England and Wales are from minority communities.
“If police are to be effective in tackling crime and bringing offenders to justice they must enjoy the trust and confidence of all the diverse communities they serve,” said ACC Bennett, College of Policing lead for professional development.
Delegates at the conference were urged to encourage people from their own communities to join policing.
“The Police Service is well known for recruiting itself – sons follow their fathers and grandfathers into the profession, which is good but which has also led to a predominantly white force,” said Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan Howe.
“Minorities need to think about how they can recruit from their families, – they need to actively invite people to come into the force.”
He added that employees need to speak more positively about the Police Service and remember that “it’s good to be a police officer”.
He said: “Police officers have a tendency to talk themselves down and be cynical. We need to realise that we could have 50,000 ambassadors for the force or alternatively, 50,000 who are saying what an awful organisation it is too work for.”
His words were echoed by Helen Bailey, Chief Operating Officer in the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), who said BME officers face the difficult task of challenging their force and highlighting where things are going wrong, at the same time as encouraging others to join.
“A representative police force will never happen unless BME officers are more upbeat about the force and the job prospects it offers,” she said.
“Think about what you are doing to show young black men and women that working in the police is something they should aspire to and want to do.”
She also added that Sir Bernard’s policy of recruiting people who live in the area was one positive way of ensuring the force becomes more representative, and encouraged other areas to do the same.
“You need to have people who understand what is normal in one area if you want to police it well,” she said.
Debate also continued over the practice of “positive discrimination,” something which Sir Bernard suggested happen temporarily in the Met Police.
He said: “To make the police service more diverse there is need for a radical change, and if you don’t have radical ideas things can’t be achieved.
“As yet no party has said they will make the necessary changes to the legislature but the present framework does mean there are some inhibitions in achieving what we want to do.”
However, other senior figures disagreed that positive discrimination was the right step to take.
Commissioner of the City of London Police, Adrian Leppard, said that more of a move towards positive action is needed, and that people need to understand the importance differences between the two principles.
“The first question we have to ask is whether BME officers and staff want positive discrimination and whether communities want it, and I think the answer is no,” he said.
“People don’t want legislation that would single them out, and we need to remember that the context in which this has happened in PSNI is completely different.”
Chair of the National Association of Muslim Police, Asif Sadiq agreed that forces need to make the most of positive action before turning to other measures.
“We need to implement positive action in every way possible. We have seen small snippets of it but no major drive towards it, which is what we really need.”
The College of Policing said they will soon be releasing practical advice on positive action to every police force in England and Wales, admitting that what is happening at the moment is “inconsistent and often ineffective”, and that the issue has “gone off the boil” over the last few years as forces have focused on budget cuts.
“Our programme will work with forces to help them encourage more people from diverse backgrounds to join the police and to remove the obstacles which may be preventing them from making the most of their talents within policing,” said ACC Bennett.
Other issues discussed were allowing officers to come back into the service after having left for a period of time, the lack of community engagement and the use of stop and search powers.