‘Lack of BAME police officers’
Still ‘much to do’ in recruitment
JUST three black people have been recruited among nearly 450 new police officers in Hampshire.
Police bosses have taken on 445 recruits in 12 months as part of a Home Office-funded uplift after years of budget cuts.
But figures seen by The News show there are just 10 black officers in the force as of March this year with the three recruits – even after the force spent £20,000 on diversity recruitment adverts.
Six Asian officers have been recruited along with seven people who identify as having a mixed ethnicity – alongside 420 white colleagues.
Senior police previously told The News the major recruitment programme was an opportunity to bring in more black, Asian and minority ethnic officers in the hope they would become future leaders.
As reported, the force spent thousands on recruitment adverts using actors in a bid to increase BAME representation.
Midia Medina, from Portsmouth’s Black Lives Matter – a group set up as part of a global response to an American police officer murdering a black man – said: ‘I think the current number speaks volumes of the changes that need to happen within the police force.
‘I do believe that until reforms are made they might not get that much interest from BAME members to become part of the force which for some people equals to becoming part of the problem.’
Hampshire’s assistant chief constable Lucy Huston said measures have been put in place in the hope of better diversity in recruitment in the remaining years of uplift recruitment. Some 12-16 per cent of applicants have been from BAME backgrounds and this is a good sign, she said.
Ms Huston said there were now 97 BAME officers in the force with this rising to 173 when taking staff into account – but she added: ‘We still have much to do.’
She said: ‘We are determined that the constabulary truly reflects the communities we serve. The measures we put in place in year one mean we expect to see a greater improvement in years two and three and beyond as creating the kind of change we want is a long term project.’
We are determined that the constabulary truly reflects the communities we serve. Lucy Huston, Hampshire’s assistant chief constable