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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:01 am
Time: 12:01 am
Results for minority police officers
1 results foundAuthor: London Assembly. Police and Crime Committee Title: The Diversity of the Met's Frontline Summary: The Met faces a significant challenge in diversifying its frontline. Before it began recruiting last year, only 11 per cent of its officers were from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background, compared with approximately 40 per cent of the population in London. Women make up a quarter of the Met's frontline, but at senior levels they are less well represented: only 18 per cent of officers ranked Inspector or above in the Met are women. Arguably, the Met's biggest concern is its representation of BAME women, where only 3 per cent of its frontline are BAME women. Faced with the challenge of diversifying its workforce, the Met has targeted its current recruitment campaign around increasing numbers of BAME and women officers. It has done away with some of the barriers that might be preventing it from recruiting a more diverse workforce, including restricting future applications to London residents only. The early signs from the Met's recruitment campaign are encouraging. However, there is still some way to go if it is to meet the Commissioner's ambition that 40 per cent of new recruits should be from a minority background. With this in mind, the majority of the Committee support the Commissioner's view that more radical solutions may be necessary unless a significant boost in the numbers of BAME officers in the Met is achieved over the next two years. Crucial to the Met's efforts to diversify its workforce is how it supports and develops its BAME and women officers. This is a challenge for all officers in the Met, but particularly Borough Commanders and line managers on borough teams. They, in many ways, hold the key to the progression of BAME and women recruits, but have been reluctant to embrace diversity initiatives in the past. Training officers to understand the importance of diversity is vital if the Met is to successfully integrate new BAME and women officers. This process should involve ensuring all BAME and women officers have access to strong mentoring and support networks. There are already a number of good initiatives being run across the organisation. The Met must build on the success of these and support those officers who often give up their time to run them. The Met must not lose sight of the impact changes to its working arrangements have had on the work-life balance of officers. Post-Olympics, the Met introduced longer shifts - including more night shifts - and reduced flexible working. At the same time, the force has seen a gradual increase of women officers leaving the force in recent years, citing work-life balance and disengagement with the organisation as the cause. While the Met has a positive approach to flexible working, it must not be afraid to innovate and learn from other organisations about how it can use flexible working most effectively. The lack of diversity on some specialist teams in the Met is concerning. Specialist units offer excellent opportunities for career progression. The Met must find ways to get more BAME and women officers into these units. For women, the male-dominated culture of some specialist teams can be a barrier to joining. The recent case of PC Carol Howard will not help the Met rectify this situation. It is right the Met is reviewing its policies in light of PC Howard's case, but it must go further by calling out discrimination and disciplining its perpetrators. The Met does not have enough BAME and women officers in senior positions. Recent internal promotion processes show this is starting to change but there are still challenges for the Met to overcome if it is to diversify its senior ranks. Negative perceptions about the lack of work-life balance of senior women officers can put some women officers off from applying for higher positions. The Met must work with its senior women officers to better articulate how they manage their work commitments. Training managers to understand how unconscious bias can prevent more BAME and women officers being promoted will also help. Ultimately, the diversity of an organisation is not just a measure of how it looks but also how it behaves. Our primary focus has been on what the Met is doing to support the recruitment, retention and progression of BAME and women officers, given this is where the Met and the Mayor's focus lies. However, we recognise the Met must have in place processes to support officers from other protected groups. The Committee discussed some of the issues pertinent to disabled and LGBT police officers. Again, the Committee is encouraged by the steps the Met is taking to mainstream diversity through the organisation. Yet, for this to succeed, it must be supported by strong leadership and a robust accountability mechanism to ensure momentum is sustained. Details: London: Greater London Authority, 2014. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 25, 2016 at: http://www.london.gov.uk/LLDC/documents/s42234/Appendix%201%20-%20The%20Diversity%20of%20the%20Mets%20frontline.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.london.gov.uk/LLDC/documents/s42234/Appendix%201%20-%20The%20Diversity%20of%20the%20Mets%20frontline.pdf Shelf Number: 137970 Keywords: Female Police OfficersMinority GroupsMinority Police OfficersPolice OfficersPolice Recruitment and Selection |