Positive discrimination needed to make police more diverse, says CRE head

Police forces need to use positive discrimination to recruit more black and ethnic officers, to help fight terrorism, says the Commission for Racial Equality.

CRE chairman Trevor Phillips said that police services had been trying hard to recruit more black and Asian people but could not make progress fast enough.

“They've been saying to me, we need to be exempted from some aspects of the race relations act so we can accelerate the integration of our forces,” Mr Phillips said.

He said the issue had become urgent but the fight against terrorism meant it was essential for the police to have a real understanding of Asian communities. The “blunders” at Forest Gate shows that “police services and security services are not fit for purpose”, he said.
Commission for Racial Equality website