Police 'whiter than ever' as one in 100 recruits from ethnic minority

Published on Thursday 5 November 2009 21:27

SCOTLAND's thin blue line is getting whiter, new figures show.

The country's eight police forces hired just 18 people from ethnic minorities in 2008-9, out of nearly 2,000 officers signed up under the SNP's recruitment drive. Forces hired the same number of black or minority ethnic (BME) people in 2007-8, but then there were only just over 800 new recruits overall.

Some officers are now worried that low recruitment among minorities will hinder their efforts to police some of the country's more diverse communities – and combat terrorism.

Dilawer Singh, the chairman of Semper Scotland, a group that campaigns for diversity in the police, said the new figures were disappointing.

The retired Strathclyde police inspector said: "We should be seeing the proportion of BME officers rise, not drop.

"We really need BME officers, officers who pick up cultural and language things that others might miss when dealing with minority offenders.

"For example, some officers sometimes misunderstand the body language of South Asians they are interviewing. They might mistake a shake of the head, which might mean agreement, for disagreement."

Senior officers want to recruit more Scots Muslims to help gather intelligence on Islamic extremists. But robust policing following the Glasgow Airport attacks, they concede privately, seems to have put people off.

Osama Saeed, of the Scottish Islamic Foundation, said: "The figures are surprising, given that police have been making genuine and visible efforts to recruit among minority communities.

"There are still issues affecting the view of the police among Muslims, such as stops at airports, that need to be addressed."

Strathclyde Police, the nation's biggest force, has already admitted just 1.28 per cent of its officers were BME as of 31 March, 2009. That is down from 1.74 per cent a year before. Just over 2 per cent of Scots are BME.

The latest figures are in the annual report of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland, the cover of which showed a recent passing out parade of nearly 200 new officers. None appeared to be black.

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland was unavailable for comment yesterday. But the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Bill Skelly, said Acpos was committed "to the principles of positive action in respect of recruitment, retention, progression and development".

A Scottish government spokesman said recruitment was a matter for individual forces, but added: "We support the police service in its aim to ensure that our forces are fully representative of the communities they serve."

'Change would help build up trust and confidence'

WHY should police services in Scotland spend time, energy and taxpayers' money on getting more diversity in their workforce? Because the benefits can be tremendous, not least in the simple job of fighting crime.

A more diverse police force will bring skills, knowledge and experience that could help change practices that some people might see as being insensitive. That, in turn, would help build up trust and confidence by the community concerned in the police, and encourage people to tell the officers what could be key information.

Imagine how a deaf person would feel about the police if he or she was able to communicate with an officer who could use sign language. And how an Iranian would react to an officer who spoke Farsi?

Just hiring BME officers, however, isn't enough. Career progression is important.

Ranjana Bell