It’s essential everyone feels the police force is their police force

“SO WHAT?”, “Who cares?”, “Why does this matter?”.

These are all comments taken from social media in response to data released last week revealing there are only 123 non-white police officers in the whole of Wales.

I am not for a second suggesting that these questions were based on prejudice – quite the opposite. Most people’s issues seemed to follow one of three lines.

The first line was that “Wales is overwhelmingly white so why should the police force be expected to be different?”.

The second was essentially that defining people around their ethnic origin was unnecessary and should be irrelevant.

The third was “maybe BME people don’t want to join the police”.

I wanted to use this column to explain why, in my opinion, you absolutely should care about these figures.

To give you context – there are 123 black and minority ethnic (BME) officers in Wales. Of these only 28 are women. Only four men and two women are above the rank of sergeant. There are 69 BME officers in South Wales Police with 20 of them being women.

Right, now we know the context, let me explain why I think you should give a damn.

In answer to the first point about Wales being a predominantly white place I would say you are right! However, if we look at the data we see the police are still falling short of representing the communities they serve.

The population of the South Wales Police area is 6.6% BME – the force is only 2.4%.

It is therefore clear that although South Wales is a very white place, South Wales Police is whiter.

Taking the second point that race and ethnicity should not be relevant, I would also say that you’re right! When it comes to employment and assessing if someone is the best person for the job, ethnic origin is total and utter irrelevance.

However, in this context, the lack of BME officers really, really does matter because it restricts the police’s ability to do their job – namely, protecting the community they serve.

Last weekend I put together a piece on these figures and spoke to 50-yearold PC Bharat Narbad. He is a cop of Indian origin with two decades of experience in the force.

He points out that areas of Cardiff like Grangetown and Butetown have huge BME populations.

A big part of policing is engaging with the community. They are essential for intelligence, tip-offs, feedback and witnesses. Put simply, it is easier to build trust, empathy and relationships between a force and an area when at least some of the coppers physically look like the people they are protecting.

This is not to say that black officers can only deal with black people and white officers with white people. But it is absolutely essential that everyone in Cardiff feels that the police force is their police force.

Looking at the third point that “maybe BME people don’t want to join the police”.

To this I would again say that you are right! According to PC Narbad that is a real and genuine problem.

Particularly in families of Asian origin, there is significant parental influence in the future careers of their children. This means that in some (not that I am suggesting all) cases, parents are more likely to direct their children to professions like law, engineering and medicine. Given the context this is understandable. “It comes from your parents and their perceptions,” PC Narbad told me. “I have seen the way police operate in India – it is corrupt. It is a low-paid job in that country and not seen as a profession.” To be fair to the police, they are trying. They conduct myth-busting sessions where they inform Sikhs that they are able to wear their turbans on the job and tell Muslim officers they will be given time to pray. They have also brought in rules like all new officers must have a degree, which will add to the perception of policing as a profession. However, they must also fight against history. Every year the anniversary of the Stephen Lawrence murder is a reminder of historic institutionalised racism within forces.

“The Stephen Lawrence anniversary raises the issue every year quite rightly,” PC Narbad told me. “When people hear reports like that, they do think that all police officers are racist. Stop and search figures don’t help as well.

“When I first signed up I was called a ‘traitor to my community.’”

Ultimately, we all want the same thing when it comes to our police. We want them to make everyone in our city safer. Not just be safer, but also feel safer. Making them truly representative of the communities they serve should be something we are all calling for.