Members of Ethnic Communities Need to be Encouraged to Join Police - Mulholland

12.00.00am GMT Wed 10th Feb 2010

Responding to information gained through a Parliamentary Question, Greg Mulholland expressed concern about the overwhelmingly white proportion of police officers in West Yorkshire Police.

The 2001 census estimated roughly 11.4% of the population in West Yorkshire were from minority ethnic communities whilst information unveiled today stated that in 2009 only 4.5% of police officers in the same region were from this community.

Commenting Greg said:

"It is important that our police force is representative of the community it serves, these figures suggest that for what ever reason people from minority communities are not being proportionally represented within the region's police force.

"I am not for one second suggesting that this is a failing on the part of the police or their recruitment policies I am simply saying that we need to identify the reasons that people from these communities do not, perhaps, feel comfortable beginning a career in the police force.

"An effective police force needs to reach out to all sections of the community and minority communities may feel alienated when they see such an overwhelmingly white police force."