Police Race Action Plan: South Yorkshire Police vow to 'rebuild the trust'

The Police Race Action Plan was recently published, seeting out the changes needed to improve outcomes for Black people who work within the police or come into contact with officers.

The report described how nationally Black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than White people and five times more likely to be subjected to the use of force.

Responding to the plan, developed jointly by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Lauren Poultney said: “I will ensure the force takes the necessary steps to not only tackle racism, discrimination and bias, but to take the force to the position of being anti-racist.”

She described how she believes the ‘overwhelming majority’ of the force’s officers and staff would not consciously tolerate racism in any form, but she could not say the issues of racism, discrimination and bias do not affect its communities and colleagues.

“This type of behaviour, in any form, is utterly deplorable and it saddens me there will be members of our workforce and our communities who will have experienced this from South Yorkshire Police. For this I apologise. It is not good enough,” she added.

Police: BAME people stopped and searched in Sheffield almost three times more than white counterparts

Chief Constable Poultney said issues around ‘inclusion and bias affecting members of our own workforce’ were ‘completely unacceptable’ and the force would be ‘looking inwardly to listen and learn from the experiences of our officers and staff’.

She added that the force would be creating an Independent Advisory Group to look at how it could better reflect the communities it serves, especially in higher-ranking roles.

“A further priority will be to rebuild the trust in policing among our Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, something which is lacking now,” she said.

“To ensure this incredibly important work is managed effectively and at pace, I have appointed Deputy Chief Constable Tim Forber as the lead.

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“The changes we need to make will not happen overnight, but the work begins now to build the anti-racist force our Black, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues and communities deserve.”