Police to be sent on training courses to ensure their banter is PC

POLICE officers are being given courses in “banter”, it has emerged, in a bid to reduce the number of staff members who say they feel excluded and unproductive at work.

Officers said they had been expecting a crime investigation course to improve their skills, but they are instead going to be taught about how to make jokes without causing offence.

The training, that staff at first thought was a joke, is to help them to understand the “fine line” between funny and harmful communication. It is said to “put political correctness in its place, recognise the benefits of fun at work and focus on the risk and responsibilities for all concerned”.

One police officer said: “It’s not a wind-up though it sounds like one. It shows the disconnect between the front line and HQ. We could badly do with some crime investigation training at all levels, but instead we get this.”

Further information appeared on Leicestershire police’s intranet. Lynne Woodward, of the force’s equality unit, said it was not aimed at controlling conversations between officers. “We recognise the workplace should be a social environment,” she said. “The training has been delivered after questions from the workforce about what is acceptable and what isn’t.” Describing the course online, the force said the scheme also aimed to help to limit the number of staff who felt “excluded, unhappy and unproductive” in the workplace.

Practical advice would be offered on how to “tackle banter in the workplace” and a “technique for having a challenging conversation about workplace banter”. It is believed that Leicestershire is the first force to have rolled out such a scheme across departments.

The revelation comes just days after a Metropolitan police detective superintendent was placed under investigation for telling colleagues that their behaviour needed to be “whiter than white”.