Police force warned for having no black officers is now ‘role model’

A YORKSHIRE POLICE force criticised by the Government for failing to employ any black officers is set to become Britain’s first force to be “representative of its population”, a meeting has heard.

North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan said while a concerted drive to recruit more officers who are women, from ethnic minorities or from lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender communities had proved successful, concerns remained that by signing up graduate officers, the force’s frontline would not accurately reflect the county’s residents.

Mrs Mulligan told the North Yorkshire and York Police, Fire and Crime Panel that the force would be representative of the county’s population from April, almost five years after the-then Home Secretary Theresa May warned that it needed to take action over its staff make-up.

Although the force’s upper ranks are equally split between men and women officers, recent years have seen recruitment drives to increase the number of women PCs and sergeants and encourage people from black and minority communities to join its ranks.

According to the latest data from the Home Office, published in April last year, a total of 1.8 per cent of North Yorkshire’s police officers were non-white compared to 3.4 per cent of the population of North Yorkshire.

The statistics also showed that 34.1 per cent of police officers were women.

However, the proportion of police community support officers (PCSOs) that were women was 50.5 per cent and 59 per cent of the force’s non-officer staff were also female.

Members of the panel raised concerns that the force was concentrating on recruiting graduates, and after being told “boots on the beat” were what was needed, Mrs Mulligan admitted that her views were similar.

Santhok Singh Sidhu, one of the panel’s members, said: “If I go back as far as 1829, Robert Peel said the Police Service should represent the community and the population it serves, and if we are going to become very selective as to who becomes a police officer,

Julia Mulligan says police force had become a role model for fire service over its diversity. we will not be making that reflection.”

Mrs Mulligan claimed diversity in the force had improved to an extent in which it had become a role model for the county’s fire service, which was beginning “to take diversity more seriously”.

She said the latest fire service recruitment drive had seen the highest level of female applicants that it had have ever had.

She added: “I was disappointed to see that not many of those individuals were successful.

“There is learning for the service about how they went about that.

“I think there is learning from North Yorkshire Police, which has come on in leaps and bounds in this over the last two years.

“We are working with the chief fire officer around this. He has a very open mind.

“He is very keen to improve the diversity of the service and leads by example in that respect in the way he behaves and talks. It’s work in progress.

“I don’t think training needs.

“It’s a deep cultural issue about the way they behave, about the way they talk on the station, the way the team dynamics within the service and the leadership behaviour, so there is a whole range of issues that need to be looked at.” it’s just about

North Yorkshire Police has come on leaps and bounds.