Ethnic Minorities and the Challenge of Police Recruitment
| Date | 01 September 2007 |
| Author | Simone Dahlmann,Domonique Delgado,Nick Hardy,Ian Waters |
| Published date | 01 September 2007 |
| DOI | 10.1350/pojo.2007.80.3.191 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DR IAN WATERS, NICK HARDY,
DOMONIQUE DELGADO AND SIMONE DAHLMANN
Crime and Community Safety Research Unit, London
Metropolitan University
ETHNIC MINORITIES AND THE
CHALLENGE OF POLICE
RECRUITMENT
This article considers some of the barriers to ethnic minority
recruitment into the police, as well as those factors that would
encourage interest in a police officer career. In addition to
reviewing recent policy, the article incorporates results from
research conducted on behalf of one UK police force. The
research revealed a considerable degree of hostility towards the
police among some ethnic minority respondents, many of
whom would never consider pursuing a police officer career.
The importance of securing a fully representative police ser-
vice has been emphasised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of
Constabulary, and the Macpherson Inquiry (1999) added
urgency to this aim. To encourage police recruitment, it is
concluded that the quality of service to local ethnic minority
communities is probably as important as any special police
recruitment campaign.
Introduction: The Challenge of Ethnic Minority Police
Recruitment
At the risk of understatement, it might be argued that the police
service faces a significant challenge in the recruitment and
retention of ethnic minorities to its officer ranks. The appoint-
ment of ethnic minorities is generally accepted as paramount for
the creation of a more representative police organisation: it is
claimed that this will lead to ‘fairer’, more sensitive, and
ultimately more effective, policing in a multi-ethnic and multi-
cultural society (HMIC, 2000). In addition to the UK, ethnic
minority recruitment has proved problematic in other countries
(see Given, 2002). The National Expertise Centre for Diversity
(LECD), which is part of the Police Academy of the Nether-
lands, has stressed that developments concerning ethnic minor-
ities in their ‘diversity policy’ are given the highest priority, even
while they acknowledge that the issue of diversity is wider than
ethnicity (Police Academy of the Netherlands, 2005: 27). Whet-
stone (1999: 406) has noted the difficulties faced by US police
The Police Journal, Volume 80 (2007) 191
departments in recruiting qualified minority candidates, arising
from historical, cultural and competitive factors. The current
article focuses on such difficulties in the UK, and draws upon
empirical research conducted between 2003 and 2006. The
research sought to identify those factors that inhibit or facilitate
ethnic minority recruitment, and was conducted at the behest of
an urban police force in England.
In the UK, a degree of urgency about ethnic minority police
recruitment followed the Macpherson Inquiry into the death, and
murder investigation, of Stephen Lawrence in London. The
Inquiry report was published in February 1999, and stimulated a
raft of policy announcements by the Metropolitan Police Service
(MPS) and the government (Wilson, Ashton and Sharp, 2001:
124). Hallsworth (2006: 308) suggests that the MPS has made
significant progress in the post-Macpherson period, even if there
is still much to be done. The Inquiry report brought into common
vernacular the term ‘institutional racism’, and included recom-
mendations and performance indicators related to levels of
recruitment, retention and progression of ethnic minority police
recruits (Joyce, 2004: 15). Nevertheless, the concept of institu-
tional racism is not new, and in the past, critical writers such as
Gordon (1983: 72) have suggested that racism in the police
mirrors institutionalised racism within the state, and in broader
society. Fielding (2005: 6) posits that institutionalised discrim-
ination results from decisions taken in a range of settings (such
as the courts and administrative apparatus of the state) and
whose explanation entails far more than exposition of police
‘canteen culture’. In response to the recommendations of the
Macpherson Inquiry, the Home Secretary presented his action
plan to the House of Commons in March 1999, and announced
the 10-year targets for recruitment and retention of ethnic
minority staff (outlined in Dismantling Barriers, Home Office
1999). As O’Mahoney (2001: 11) notes, 2% of police officers in
England and Wales were from an ethnic minority background in
1999. The Home Office (2001: 33) has indicated that the
milestone targets for 2002, 2004 and 2009 were 3%, 4% and 7%
respectively; in 2001, the number of ethnic minority officers had
increased from 2732 to 2955 over the previous year (ibid.: 9).
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Asso-
ciation of Police Authorities (APA) and the Home Office pro-
duced the Breaking Through: Action Plan in 2004; this reported
that since the launch of Dismantling Barriers in 1999, the
number of ethnic minority police officers had increased by 1356
or 53% (ACPO, APA and Home Office, 2004: 1). In March
192 The Police Journal, Volume 80 (2007)
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