Recruitment of white officers must be slowed down

Bevan Powell, deputy chair of the Black Police Association, has called for “affirmative action” to help recruit more black police personnel.

Speaking to Black Britain Powell said: “We’ve already said that we would like to see affirmative action put in place. Both [in terms of recruitment and progression] based on the patent model that was introduced in Northern Ireland where a 50-50 system was introduced - 50 per cent Catholic and 50 per cent Protestant.”

Powell, maintained that he wasn’t talking about a “lowering of standards” or even the same “50/50 split” that worked so successfully in Ireland.

Powell told Black Britain: “What we are talking about is having a critical mass of officers recruited at the same time. In a sense, slowing down the recruitment of white officers and increasing that of blacks. It might be [only] 30-70 but this is certainly something that we are demanding for London.”

Powell insisted that The Association of Chief Police Officers [ACPO], a police body that works in developing policing policies on behalf of the service as a whole, were behind him.

Powell told Black Britain: “Many senior officers within ACPO and within the constabularies have voiced support for such an action but it will need delegation. We have already written papers on that.”

Two years ago ACPO said that it had concerns about the proposal - but agreed “radical” measures were needed if “ethnic minority candidates” were to be fast tracked into the service.

What is the need?

If 20% of a local population are Black should the local police force aim to recuit a force with a number of Blacks proportional to that figure?

I would feel safer in the knowledge that my local force had followed principles that allowed it to pick only the best candidates for the job rather than just those who happened to be from the 'right' race.