Police force paid £1,500 for ‘white privilege’ lecture Chief defends expense in face of budget crisis

CASH-STRAPPED West Midlands Police paid an academic £1,500 to lecture senior officers about ‘white privilege’ and white identity.

Dr Robert Beckford is professor of theology and culture at Canterbury Christ Church University and a former Birmingham University lecturer.

Last month, he was invited by West Midlands Police’s senior command team to talk to top officers, including Chief Constable David Thompson, on the subject of ‘white identity’ and ‘white privilege’.

He gave a two-hour lecture to about 100 senior officers at Lloyd House, the force’s headquarters in the city centre, and was paid £1,500 by the force.

Chief Constable Thompson has defended the lecture, which was paid for out of the force’s training budget.

“I am aware some people feel this is about the police being obsessed with political correctness,” he said. “It isn’t. It is a fundamental issue of fairness. I will not shy away from challenging our force to be the best we can be – for everyone.”

Dr Beckford said the talk was entitled ‘What can we learn from critical whiteness studies?’

“I basically explored how that discipline may, or may not, have implications for policing,” he told the Birmingham Post. “It was much more of a conversation between an academic subject and the practicalities of thinking about identities within the police force.

“It’s really an attempt to see if policing can learn from the cultural politics of whiteness studies within the UK.

“My expertise is not within policing or criminology but I do teach students – and often people training for the ministry – to think about how their identities will impact on their professions.

“In the case of the police, it was much more of a conversation and therefore an opportunity for them to think about how this might impact on their work.

“I can’t really say how this would impact on their work. I’m not a police officer. It was a conversation.

“I’m not in a position to tell them how to think about their identities.”

Last month, it was revealed that white male officers in West Midlands Police were blocked from promotion in order to give women and ethnic minority candidates a better chance.

The force later ‘paused’ the application process and was accused of discrimination by white officers. It also received complaints about the process from minority group officers. The controversial promotion system was drawn up by its People and Organisation Development department (POD) which has an annual budget of more than £17 million.

POD was created last year and boasts a staff of more than 400 people, including its £123,000-a-year director, a head of diversity and inclusion earning up to £65,751 per annum, a positive action manager on £46,422 a year, and a head of wellbeing on up to £65,000 annually.

West Midlands Police aspires to have ‘closer to 30 per cent black, Asian and minority ethnic and 50 per cent female representation of the West Midlands’, according to Ali Layne-Smith, who heads up the force’s POD department.

Dr Beckford added: “These officers recognise that they need to do much more to diversify the force so it can better serve the whole of the community – and that came from the officers.” CHIEF Constable Dave Thompson said: “West Midlands Police does not reflect the communities we serve. We police the second most ethnically diverse region in the country with more than 30 per cent of the population from minority communities. We are one of the most diverse areas in the country. We are also the youngest. “But the force does not reflect this. Only around 11 per cent of the force are from minority groups; 58 per cent of the force is male. Our average age is 41. We must do better. I am committed to changing this by recruiting and promoting a more diverse workforce. I want the force to look like, and feel like, the public we serve. We simply have to do this as our region is changing rapidly and we won’t be a fair and legitimate service if we don’t change too.

“This means investing in diversity and inclusion strategies and the staff to deliver this, positive action programmes and national support for staff networks. We are strengthening our diversity and inclusion work because West Midlands Police does not treat everyone fairly.”