Of the 162 Newest Recruits, 139 were White and 13 were Asians
West Midlands Police has faced questions from its own crime commissioner after it was found that only one black officer was recruited in the force’s most recent batch of 162 new recruits.
Police and Crime Commissioner, David Jamieson, has criticised the recruitment process after he received details of the ethnicity of the latest recruits – the first employed to join the force since 2010.
The Crime Commissioner said that the police force needs to do more to “look like the public it serves”.
Over 30,000 people had registered interest in applying for the 450 positions available at West Midlands Police.
The ethnicity of the initial 162 officers recruited has been revealed as: 139 white, 13 Asian, seven of mixed race descent, two listed as ‘none stated’ and only one black.
Mr Jamieson has voiced his concerns, saying that the force needs to improve its recruitment drives in order to reach out to all communities.
He said: “West Midlands Police quite rightly only recruits the very best people, but the force clearly needs to do more to engage with communities to ensure that more BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) people apply to be police officers.
“The police service should look like the public it serves.
“I believe that West Midlands Police is an open organisation that is welcoming of people from all backgrounds, but also an organisation that needs to do much more to ensure that people from all backgrounds apply to join their ranks.”
Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Yvonne Mosquito added: “The next challenge that I have set my sights on is making sure that more people from BME communities apply to join the force and make the police force look more like the public it serves. The number of BME people recruited by the force so far is disappointing and needs improving.”
West Midlands Police have said that they had targeted under-represented groups by holding pre-recruitment workshops alongside discovery days and myth-busting presentations.
Applications for the approximate 300 remaining positions were re-opened in March with further intakes planned for later this year as well as the first half of next year.
