Force culture is hindrance to diversity

May 30 2008 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

CHESHIRE Chief Constable Peter Fahy has called for fairer selection procedures to increase the number of top-ranking black and Asian officers.

Mr Fahy told the BBC that people could have a problem with their “face not fitting” into traditional organisations such as the police and that more work needed to be done to challenge the prevailing culture.

He warned that the police service was at risk of relying on a few individuals to fight their way up.

Policing was almost unique “in that people have to work their way up from the bottom to get to the top” which, he said, took a long time.

“You are asking those individuals not only to be really good senior police leaders, but also almost to be role models and standard bearers and almost fight the prevailing culture to make sure that they get to the top.”

Mr Fahy, who is the Association of Chief Police Officers leader on Workforce Development and formerly covered Race and Diversity, called for the police to look to more dynamic organisations where people from different backgrounds and with different approaches are “recognised and valued”.

He said: “There is a danger in a police force which has got a hierarchy and long traditions... you tend to mould people to act in a particular way and that can work against people from ethnic minorities.”