Hire more blacks, Straw tells police sets
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.JACK STRAW challenged police yesterday to recruit more than 8,000 black and Asian officers in the next decade. The Home Secretary set a target for each force in England and Wales and said he hoped every force would reflect the racial make-up of the area it served.
The Metropolitan Police has been told it should have 5,662 officers from ethnic minorities, the highest target set. In the West Midlands, the figure is 862, with 356 in Greater Manchester and 345 in West Yorkshire.
But Mr Straw told a conference in Southampton that even forces in areas with less than 1 per cent ethnic minority population would be expected to have at least 1 per cent of their officers from ethnic minorities.
Only four forces were declared "on target" for their ethnic minority recruitment - Gwent, Norfolk, Northampton-shire and Suffolk. Nationally, only about 2 per cent of police officers come from ethnic minorities although the minorities are 7 per cent of the population.
Home Office research published to coincide with the conference, on recruitment, retention and progression of Black and Asian police officers, found "institutional racism" was blighting the careers of ethnic minority officers. Black and Asian officers were leaving the force at double the rate of whites. Two or three times as many black and Asian officers were dismissed as whites. Asian officers took five months longer, on average, to be made sergeants, black officers 18 months longer. Black officers take 23 months longer to become inspectors, Asian officers 16 months.
There are 2,191 black and Asian constables out of 97,671 officers at that rank and only six black and Asian superintendents among 1,237.
Mr Straw said he was setting targets and not quotas and there was no question of ethnic minority officers being promoted on anything but merit.
The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Condon, said he warmly embraced the targets set for the Met and said it was "catch-up time" for the whole of the police service. The Met has been told to increase the number of ethnic minority officers from 865, which is 3.3 per cent of the force, to 5,662 to bring it in line with the 25 per cent ethnic minority population of the area it serves.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments