The National Policing Improvement Agency has promised to continue to help police forces improve recruitment and retention of officers from ethnic minorities.
Speaking exclusively to Personnel Today, chief people officer Angela O’Connor said the police improvements body would work with key policing agencies, including the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO),to recruit and retain more minority officers and staff.
Her comments follow the Police and Racism report published by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) earlier this week, which revealed evidence of a ‘canteen culture’ among some specialist police units that were still seen as a ‘closed shop’ to some ethnic minority recruits.
O’Connor said: “We are supporting work on recruitment and retention on behalf of the [NPIA’s] tripartite board (ACPO, the Association of Police Authorities and the Home office). This includes the development of talent management initiatives across the service in general and particularly in support of black and minority ethnic officers.”
She pointed out the agency had recently introduced a high potential development scheme which could see people from ethnic minorities fast-tracked to the top.
“We are also looking at extending the current careers advice service that we operate across the service,” she added.
The EHRC report found that while significant changes to the way police forces recruit, train and promote ethnic minority staff had achieved positive results, minority officers still had a higher resignation rate than white officers and experienced “difficulty” when wanting to join specialist squads, thought to include firearms, robbery and anti-terrorist units.
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