Sussex Police: Black, Asian and minority ethnic recruits

It comes as the National Black Police Association says police forces in the UK need to show more ambition in recruiting officers from BAME backgrounds.

While the National Police Chiefs Council accepts "much more needs to be done" across the country.

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: "We are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and are striving to employ a workforce that fully represents and reflects the population and communities, so that we can better serve them.

"We have been working hard to increase applications from BAME individuals when we run recruitment campaigns. To encourage more BAME applicants to apply, we work directly with diverse communities in Sussex. We represent, as much as possible, BAME officers in our external publicity.

"At the application stage, BAME applicants can opt to identify themselves as minority ethnic. They will then be contacted by our positive action kead, who would mentor them in terms of encouraging confidence and overcoming barriers. Internally we have commenced training more BAME officers and staff to take part as interviewers in job interview panels."

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In the area served by Sussex Police, 6 per cent of people are from BAME backgrounds, according to mid-2016 population estimates – the latest to have an ethnicity breakdown.

Home Office data shows Sussex Police recruited 145 new officers in the nine months to the end of 2020 and of the 114 new recruits who declared their ethnicity, nine were from a BAME background.

This means the force had 87 officers from BAME background - 3.2 per cent of the 2,702 officers whose ethnicity was recorded.

Sussex Police provided more recent intake figures for new trainee police officers for the period June 2020 to Jan 2021.

This showed that out of a total 199 recruits, 21 identify as being from a BAME background, which is 10.6 per cent.

In England and Wales, 7.5 per cent of officers are from a BAME background.

This is despite people from BAME backgrounds making up 14.5 per cent of the population.

However, that was a rise from 7.3 per cent in March last year, and 4.7 per cent in March 2010.

Last year a study by the Police Foundation thinktank found more people from Asian and mixed ethnic backgrounds had increased, but black representation in police forces had “barely increased”.

National Black Police Association says police forces in the UK need to show more ambition in recruiting officers from BAME backgrounds

And the NBPA president, Andy George, said the association remains concerned over the make-up of police forces in relation to the communities they serve.

He said: "The recent uplift in police recruitment has shown some improvements in this area but we would like to see a more ambitious drive to increase the number of officers and staff members from BAME backgrounds.

"We are unconvinced the current recruitment uplift will be used as the once in a lifetime opportunity it is, to reset the workforce composition."

The NPCC said forces across the country have set action plans to ensure recruitment attracts people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

A spokesperson added: "We are actively engaging with communities who are currently underrepresented in policing to understand the barriers and address any misconceptions."

Kit Malthouse was in the Conservative leadership race in 2019 but later dropped out

Meanwhile, policing minister Kit Malthouse said police forces are "more diverse than ever before".

He added: "The recruitment of 20,000 additional police officers presents a once in a generation opportunity to ensure they are even more reflective of the communities they serve.

“National diversity recruitment data is being collected and monitored for the first time ever, with appropriate support in place to help forces attract people from a diverse range of backgrounds.

"Where appropriate, we will take direct action to address poor performance in this area.”

The government's police recruitment campaign was launched in October 2019, with each force handed a target for the first phase ending in March this year.

Sussex Police recruited 231 officers between November 2019 and December last year, the figures show.

Allowing for leavers, the overall uplift over the period was 129, meaning the force has already reached its first phase target as of the end of 2020.

This excludes 17 extra officers recruited outside of the programme, such as through council tax precept.

Across England and Wales, forces have a collective goal of recruiting 6,000 extra police officers by March 31.

By the end of December, 6,620 officers had been added through the hiring scheme.

Sussex Police has a Facebook page dedicated to positive action: https://www.facebook.com/SusPolPositiveActionrecruitment