BACKGROUND

  During the last decade I have been researching race relations within the police workforce. Most of this work has been funded by the Home Office and intended to assist policy development. In 1988 I was funded to undertake a study of the recruitment of ethnic minorities into the police (Home Office 1990; Holdaway 1991). In that research I interviewed a national sample of black and Asian serving officers, assistant chief constables with responsibility for recruitment policy, and recruiting officers. On completion of the research I was funded, again by the Home Office, to study the retention of black and Asian officers (Holdaway 1993; Holdaway and Baron 1997). In that project I interviewed black, Asian and white resigners and their last supervisor. The intention was to identify the points at which officers considered resigning from the police service and the pertinence of race relations to their decision making.

  Before presenting the main findings from this research I would like to stress one point that arises from my wide ranging research about the police. All police policies are filtered through what I have called the "occupational culture of the lower ranks" (Holdaway 1983; Holdaway1996). By this I mean the common-sense that orientates officers in their day to day work. This common-sense is pervasive and at many points in conflict with the intentions of written policy. There is a key distinction to be made between policy as it is written and policy in action.

  During my research, virtually all serving and erstwhile officers from ethnic minorities mentioned the insidious impact of the occupational culture on their experience of police employment. Crucially, they mentioned the racial prejudice and discrimination which frequently typified relationships with their white peers. One consequence of this situation for training in equal opportunities is that unless the occupational culture of the lower ranks is changed, equal opportunities policies will not be translated adequately into action.

  In what follows I present the main findings of my research. They have been published in various forms by the Home Office, including a Circular about recruitment, but I doubt if they have guided policy development within constabularies. They nevertheless remain as the only systematic research findings about the recruitment into and retention of ethnic minorities in the constabularies of England and Wales. The extent to which they have been ignored is indicative of how far researched, good practice based evidence has guided policy developments and, crucially, the approach of chief officers to key aspects of their work within multi-racial Britain.

  The findings have been edited slightly but are in essence those contained in my reports to the Home Office.

THE RECRUITMENT OF ETHNIC MINORITY OFFICERS INTO THE POLICE SERVICE—MAIN FINDINGS

  The extent to which policies for ethnic minority recruitment are developed in a constabulary represents its senior officers' perception of and intention to recognise the multi-racial nature of our society and to establish a multi-racial workforce. This point is equally relevant to a force covering a rural or urban area. A constabulary's workforce is not expected to be broadly representative of the ethnic composition of a local population but of the population of our society as a whole.

  Having said this, a magic formula to increase dramatically ethnic minority recruitment in the short term has not been identified. Staff involved in ethnic minority recruitment will endorse a comment made by an officer with extensive experience of this area of work, "I think the word that would guarantee sustained continuity, the word is commitment".

  The slow increase in the number of ethnic minority officers serving in the British police is likely to continue. Gains made from ethnic minority recruiting initiatives are relatively small. When special action is taken, however, increases in applications and appointments can be significant.

  Deficiencies in arrangements to monitor recruiting work have been identified. It is not possible to monitor recruitment effectively without adequate records. Record keeping is improving and progress should be sustained.

  Just ten forces, less than a quarter of the British police, have as a matter of policy provided their recruiting staff with a standard, formal definition to use when classifying the ethnic origin of an applicant to their force. This does not mean that forces without a standard definition have no system of classification but that their definition is not a matter of formal policy.

  Specialist knowledge has its part to play in ethnic minority recruitment and there is a clear case for the development of closer links between recruiting departments and those concerned with community and race relations. At the moment the co-operation of various police departments whose work is related to and has an impact on ethnic minority recruitment is inadequate.

  Ethnic minority recruitment is crucially related to the quality of routine policing. The notion that every officer is a potential recruiter is an essential one to be fostered in all constabularies.

  Race relations within the police workforce are as important as those which reach out to the minority communities. Evidence from ethnic minority officers indicates that they work in a setting where their ethnicity is the subject of frequent comment by colleagues.

  Just over half of all constabularies said that they had published an equal opportunity policy statement, including ethnic minority recruitment within its scope. Not all these forces had also published an equal opportunity code of practice. The declaration of equal opportunity policy has nevertheless recently moved apace within the British police.

  This is obviously a welcome development but in itself an inadequate policy framework to tackle ethnic minority recruitment. There is a danger that central issues about officers' attitudes to race relations are not understood and addressed with sufficient purpose and clarity within the general and rather legalistic framework of a formal equal opportunity policy statement.

  The ministerial advice given to chief constables in 1986, when it was suggested that they should publish a force race relations policy statement, is firmly reiterated. There is no evidence to suggest that such a statement would do anything but good in the fields of police, ethnic minority relations in general and ethnic minority recruitment in particular.

  The research has uncovered diverse understandings of the notions of "positive action" and the "representativeness" of the workforce. Officers tend to interpret positive action as positive discrimination. This is a difficult area but there is evidence that forces are too cautious about taking bold steps to enhance their ethnic minority recruitment work.

  At the national level, there is a need for the Home Office and Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary to co-ordinate and disseminate information about good practice; to harmonise the provision of resources; and to assist the establishment of criteria of effectiveness. Forces tend to work independently and those which have put a great deal of energy into ethnic minority recruitment—and there are some which have certainly done so—find it difficult to identify new ideas and strategies. Forces beginning ethnic minority recruiting work have no ready source of information from which examples of good practice can be obtained. This situation encourages inefficiency and ineffectiveness.

  Although a clear formula for dramatically increasing ethnic minority recruitment to the police has not been identified, the research has established essential features of recruitment policy and practice. Chief constables need to be sure that they maximise their effectiveness in this area of work and the following may be regarded as a checklist of recommendations for policy development, implementation and monitoring.

DEVELOPING A POLICY FOR ETHNIC MINORITY RECRUITMENT

  1.  A clear pre-requisite for ethnic minority recruitment is that priority and commitment should be assigned to the task by the chief constable and the senior management team. This commitment should be expressed personally to recruiting staff, in written form and in various other settings to all staff and to the public. It must be affirmed many times, to encourage recruiting staff and to ensure that the police workforce and the public are in no doubt about its seriousness.

  2.  All officers should therefore be aware that ethnic minority recruitment is a task of long-term character, requiring continual monitoring and appraisal. Staff with particular responsibility for this work need the clearly expressed support of their senior officers over an equally long period of time.

  3.  All chief constables should publish a force race relations policy statement, including ethnic minority recruitment within its scope.

  4.  Ethnic minority recruitment policy should be clearly focussed and benefit is derived when one officer is briefed to take responsibility for it. This officer, who may combine the task with other aspects of recruiting, should work to the relevant ACC and ensure that the following matters are included in the development of policy.

  5.  The force ethnic minority recruitment profile should be thoroughly researched. There is a need, for example, to determine the size of the local ethnic minority population; to identify the points of the recruitment process at which ethnic minority applicants have not succeeded; and to carefully analyse the local context of police, race relations. Appropriate policy should be based on the results of this research.

  6.  The force community and, or race relations department should be involved in the planning of ethnic minority recruitment policy and initiatives from the outset.

  7.  The officer responsible for ethnic minority recruitment should set an agreed notional quota for ethnic minority representation within the force. Undue concern is expressed by senior officers about all aspects of employment quotas. A notional quota provides a force with a target which has served as a helpful benchmark in constabularies giving priority to ethnic minority recruitment. It is recommended that these target figures should be published in the chief constables' annual report.

  8.  Performance indicators for ethnic minority recruitment should be defined and agreed before policy is implemented. Numerical indicators of enquiries, applications and appointments; indicators of the understanding of policy within the workforce and within ethnic minority groups; and of the quality of police, public and ethnic minority relations should be included.

  9.  A system for monitoring these performance indicators should be established before policy and special recruitment initiatives are implemented.

  10.  Adequate records linking applicants to the force to specific ethnic minority recruitment initiatives should be established. Application forms for appointment to all forces must include a question asking applicants if they are responding to a special recruiting initiative. At the moment hardly any forces do this and it is therefore impossible for them to assess the effectiveness of their ethnic minority recruitment work.

  11.  Ethnic minority recruitment initiatives may generate disagreement and hostility within the workforce. These sentiments are aroused by attitudes to race and race relations. This is a situation which requires sensitive management and there is a need for officers of intermediate and senior rank to be trained in the management of change in a multi-racial workforce.

  12.  Recruiting officers need to remain in post for a sufficient period of time to acquire and develop expertise. A twelve month posting as recruitment officer is inadequate to ensure the continuity of policy.

  13.  When staff changes occur, senior officers should ensure that the commitment of the force, its policy perspective and its ethnic minority recruitment are conveyed during a personal briefing to new staff. This recommendation is of equal relevance to the post of ACC and to the lower ranks.

  14.  A key element underlying all these findings is that every officer is a potential recruiter. This view should be fostered in all constabularies.

 ADMINISTERING RECRUITMENT

  The administration of applications to join the police cannot be isolated from the development of ethnic minority recruitment policy. The research evidence indicates that very few forces have adequately monitored their administration of ethnic minority recruitment and, by implication, their readiness to become equal opportunity employers.

  1.  When an application for appointment from an ethnic minority candidate is received it should be given maximum attention. This attention is most adequately provided when decisions about selection are specially monitored by a senior officer. There is evidence that an early response to ethnic minority applicants is interpreted as a serious intention to recruit.

  2.  Ethnic minority officers face particular difficulties with colleagues and on occasion with members of the public. The senior officers interviewed underestimated the extent and impact of these difficulties. Supervisors should be aware of the issues involved and be able to raise, discuss and suggest strategies to deal with them. There is little or no training for this work and, as a matter of policy, adequate arrangements to monitor the professional development of ethnic minority officers should be established.

  3.  All recruitment procedures, including decisions made and their outcomes should be monitored regularly. This requires officers to be trained in monitoring and evaluation skills.

RACE RELATIONS

  There is no doubt that race relations within the police workforce present problems requiring immediate attention. The senior officers interviewed recognised the need to recruit a multi-racial workforce. They underestimate, however, the extent to which race relations within their existing workforce present managerial problems which have to be addressed. Many senior officers do not tackle this problem because they fear their intervention will exasperate an already difficult situation and, it seems, that any errors will bring criticism from colleagues. It is nevertheless the case that action on this matter should be taken as a priority.

  1.  Clear action should be taken to ensure that all ranks and other personnel working within a force understand that racialist language is unacceptable.

  2.  Officers of managerial rank and, in particular, sergeants and inspectors should be trained in the management of race relations within their workforce. The training should include the management of change when recruitment work is undertaken.

  3.  All forces need to cultivate the view that ethnic minority recruitment, and all recruitment for that matter, is crucially related to the style and quality of police service received by the public and the ethnic minorities in particular.

  4.  Clear definitions of positive or affirmative action are published. The Association of Chief Probation Officers, for example, provide an accessible definition of affirmative action in their Anti-Racism Policy Statement. This is suited to the work of police forces and, with other definitions, provides a base from which they can develop their own policy.

  5.  Training courses for officers with a responsibility for policy making should include discussion of the meaning and operation of positive action, and of the notion of "representativeness" within the context of the composition of their workforce.

ETHNIC MINORITY RECRUITMENT INITIATIVES

  Special ethnic minority recruiting initiatives should be undertaken in all forces. They require careful planning and monitoring. Ethnic minority officers are apprehensive about the possible effects of initiatives on recruitment, and especially concerned that they may create a second-class route for recruitment to the police service. The sensitive management of initiatives is therefore required but should not delay senior officers from developing and sustaining them.

  1.  It is essential for the police to stimulate ethnic minority recruitment rather than wait for people from an ethnic minority to apply to a force as a matter of course.

  2.  All special initiatives should be part of a coherent, wide-ranging recruitment policy, which includes relations with the ethnic minorities living within its area and working within its ranks. Ethnic minority recruitment is not a discrete area of work to be set apart from routine policing: it should be one aspect of a corporate policy strategy.

  3.  All forces should establish a programme of special initiatives as part of a positive stance towards ethnic minority recruitment. The lack of a sizeable ethnic minority population living within a force's boundary should not deter this action. Britain is a multi-racial society and there is no reason for forces serving rural areas to ignore their need to reflect in some measure the general population of the society they serve.

  4.  There is a strong case for seeking the advice of ethnic minority officers when recruiting initiatives are planned and evaluated. They should be employed to assist the running of recruiting initiatives. Care should be taken, however, to ensure that this employment is not in tension with officers' desire to be regarded as a member of a force on a par with all colleagues.

  5.  Whatever their pattern of initiatives, forces should review how they communicate to their ranks the nature of ethnic minority recruiting work undertaken. Many ethnic minority officers, and white officers for that matter, have little or no knowledge of their force recruiting policy. This situation can foster inaccurate rumours about preferential treatment afforded ethnic minority applicants to the force.

  6.  Forces undertaking recruitment work in schools and with the careers service should ensure that it is carefully planned, consistent and clearly focussed on the ethnic minorities.

  7.  Insufficient attention is given to recruiting work in the tertiary sector of education. This may be a fruitful area which has not been given adequate attention.

  8.  All forces should give consideration to holding regular public recruitment meetings. Their format should include an opportunity for participants to speak to officers working on patrol duty.

  9.  Very few forces are targeting residential areas to leaflet houses, linking this work to the use of a recruiting caravan. Forces should give consideration to this strategy, including its possible benefits for police, public relations.

  10.  Advertising is a background feature of ethnic minority recruitment. Forces placing sole reliance on it should review their practice. All forces should include in their advertisements a statement that they are particularly interested in attracting ethnic minority applicants.

  11.  The access courses developed by the West Midlands Police and South Yorkshire Police, for example, are commendable and should be considered by many other forces. Access courses, however, are primarily a safety net to retain applicants who have already or anticipate they will fail the P.I.R. test. They are not a direct recruiting initiative.

  12.  The recruitment of ethnic minority candidates to the Special Constabulary is identified by many forces as a channel through which representation in the regular force can be increased. It is recommended that this strategy is considered, including within it the possibility that recruitment to a civilian post may also serve as a trial period to foster an application to the regular force.

  13.  Recruiting initiatives making a negligible impact in the short term may play an important role to strengthen police, public relations and especially police relations with the ethnic minorities. Forces may therefore need to continue taking initiatives which they know will bring small or no gains in applications to their force.

  14.  Forces undertaking a special, time-limited recruitment drive should ensure that its features are integrated into a general, long term ethnic minority recruitment policy and more broadly conceived corporate strategy.

THE HOME OFFICE

  Responsibility for ethnic minority recruitment does not lie solely with individual chief constables. The Home Office and Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary can do much to encourage ethnic minority recruitment.

  The Home Office and H.M.I.C. can in the future play an important and desired role by developing effective means of collating and disseminating information about special recruitment initiatives and by supporting other needed ventures. Forces are acting independently when they plan their ethnic minority recruitment work. There is considerable experience and knowledge of ethnic minority recruiting within the British police which is not shared nationally.

  1.  The Home Office in collaboration with H.M.I.C. should establish a means of publishing and disseminating information about ethnic minority recruitment policy and practice; organise regular seminars about relevant issues, ensuring that recruiting officers as well as their senior managers attend them; and support training in the areas identified—selection interviewing, monitoring the progress of ethnic minority officers, the management of a multi-racial workforce and so on.

  2.  One possibility is establishing regional centres which act as a recruitment clearing house. Such an arrangement would improve the likelihood of even standards being applied to decisions about applications; ease the task of monitoring the administration of applications; and reduce costs. Individual forces would remain involved in the essential promotional work required and in some aspects of the selection process.

  3.  Special attention is needed to assist rural forces to recruit from the ethnic minorities. There is certainly a need to enhance the ethnic minority recruiting profile of all rural forces. Regional recruiting centres could assist here. Their staff would have responsibility for recruitment to a number of forces and successful applicants could therefore be referred to a range of forces with vacancies.

  4.  Consideration should be given to planning a national ethnic minority recruitment initiative. This would bring a number of forces together in a co-operative exercise; provide an experimental situation within which different initiatives could be evaluated; and give a stimulus to ethnic minority recruitment nationally.

 CONCLUSION

  Ethnic minority recruitment presents a challenge to all constabularies. Many recommendations for changes in policy and practice have been included in this brief report. They cover generic and specialist aspects of police work; range across the duties of all ranks; and span the boundary between police and the public. Every force is therefore required to develop a corporate policy strategy which is clearly focused and integrated but at the same time wide-ranging in its approach to ethnic minority recruitment. Above all, ethnic minority recruitment should not be regarded as a discrete issue but as a matter for coherent policy.

  A number of forces have developed important innovations of policy and practice to increase the recruitment of ethnic minority officers to their ranks. The many recommendations for change made in this report should not diminish the value of their work. There is surely no clearer evidence of an integrated multi-racial society than a police force with a significant ethnic minority representation within its ranks.

THE RETENTION OF ETHNIC MINORITY OFFICERS IN THE POLICE SERVICE IN ENGLAND AND WALES—MAIN RESEARCH FINDINGS

  1.  When applying to and recruited into a constabulary, officers realised that they might face some difficulties with colleagues. Their experience of police employment, however, convinced them, their families and friends that the police service did little to combat racial prejudice and discrimination within its ranks. Police employment had heightened officers' identity of being the member of a racialised minority group. Damage was done to the status and integrity of the police.

  2.  A range of equal opportunities policies have been published by constabularies. The adequate implementation of these policies and their recognised impact within the working lives of the resigners was not evident. There is a problem of translating policy into action, which must be linked to the very slow pace of cultural change within the police.

  3.  All the black and Asian resigners had experienced prejudice and, for some, discriminatory treatment was evident within the ranks. Racist language was commonplace amongst colleagues. I identified this as long ago as 1983, in my book "Inside the British Police: A Force at Work". The problem is still evident.

  4.  The root of the problems ethnic minority officers faced were related to the occupational culture of policing. Mundane features of that culture, team work, the routine use of stereotypes, jokes and banter, for example, were found to emphasise racial distinctions within the workforce and foster prejudice. The problem was the occupational culture, not a few racist officers or a lack of policy. The research identified very precisely the pressure points within the occupational culture that lead to negative, racialised relations between ethnic minority and ethnic majority officers.

  5.  Few, if any supervisory officers understood the problems their ethnic minority colleagues faced. Very few took any action to address the situation. Many sergeants and inspectors reinforced rather than challenged the occupational culture.

  6.  The recent policy ACPO initiatives to deal with racial prejudice within the police workforce is related to total quality management. The consultants who assisted to develop this program of change failed to take equal opportunities into account and had no knowledge of the occupational culture of the police rank and file. Conflicts of race (and gender) within the workforce are underestimated and a rather bland notion of equal opportunities now informs policy. Indeed, some aspects of the programme of change—team work, for example—will enhance rather than diminish prejudice within the ranks.

  7.  Attention needs to be given to the management of race relations within police training schools. Many resigners said they experienced difficult relationships with white officers from their first days of police employment.

  8.  Ethnic minority officers thought many tutor constables were inadequately trained for their work.

  9.  Ethnic minority officers need special support mechanisms. Black police associations within constabularies are very important.

  10.  Over all, there was no appreciation of or attempt to put a positive action approach to the management of ethnic minority officers into practice. Many constabularies are developing innovative recruitment initiatives. Without a positive action approach to the routine management of the police these efforts will be wasted and the present situation will persist.

Simon Holdaway, BA PhD

5 November 1998

REFERENCES

  Holdaway, S (1983). Inside the British Police: A Force at Work. Oxford, Blackwell.

  Holdaway, S (1991). Recruiting a Multi-Racial Police Force. London, HMSO.

  Holdaway, S (1993). The Resignation of Black and Asian Officers from the Police Service. A Report to the Home Office. London, Home Office.

  Holdaway, S (1996). The Racialisation of British Policing. Basingstoke, Macmillan.

  Holdaway, S and A-M Barron (1997) Resigners? The Experience of Black and Asian Police Officers. Basingstoke, Macmillan.

  Home Office (1990). Ethnic Minority Recruitment into the Police Service. 33/1990, Race, Policy.

  Wilson, D, S Holdaway, et al (1984). "Black Police in the United Kingdom." Policing 1(1): 20-30.