Black people in West Yorkshire significantly underrepresented in police force

Black people in West Yorkshire are significantly underrepresented in their police force, new figures reveal.

Home Office data shows there were just 23 black officers in West Yorkshire Police at the end of March – a rate of 4.3 per 1,000 officers whose ethnicity was recorded.

But a recent analysis by the Government Statistical Service shows that 18.8 per 1,000 people in the local area are black – more than four times the rate in the police workforce. Across all police forces in England and Wales, 12.6 per 1,000 officers were black, while the figure for the population stood at 33.7.

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Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association, said police forces have been too slow and inconsistent in addressing a lack of diversity in their ranks.

He said: “Black communities are facing the most disproportionate use of police powers, particularly stop and search and use of force. This will inevitably lead to fewer members of the community seeing policing as a viable career.” Mr George said the government’s pledge to recruit 20,000 extra officers by 2023 offered a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to make police forces reflective of the communities they serve.

A report released earlier this year by the Police Foundation think tank said increasing levels of diversity in police forces since 2007 had mainly been driven by the recruitment of Asian and mixed ethnicity officers, while black representation had “barely increased”.

In West Yorkshire, there were 328 officers from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in March, up from 300 a year earlier.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The government wants to see people from all backgrounds joining the police, with police forces that are representative of the community they serve.”

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