Race Matters

Community oversight

The independent community scrutiny and oversight board ensures we deliver our Race Matters work with the voices of people from Black, ethnic, or minority backgrounds at its core.

If you want to be involved in this work or receive regular updates, register your interest in Race Matters.

Independent Advisory Groups (IAG)

Our IAGs and Young Persons’ IAGs are forums for community representatives to work with us on local issues. Find out about IAGs and how to become a member.

Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPT)

Our NPTs build relationships with community groups and leaders in their area.

They attend local events, visit schools and youth groups to support in the prevention, detection and resolution of crime and anti-social behaviour.

To get in touch with your local policing team, type your address into the Your Area section of our website.

Understanding our workforce’s experiences

Survey responses about the wellbeing of police officers and staff of Black heritage will help shape policies and training to ensure the appropriate guidance and support is available.

Outreach team

Our outreach team encourage people from diverse backgrounds to apply for jobs with the police, mentor them through the recruitment process and provide support to increase their prospects within the service.

Training

Training packages support the workforce’s understanding of Black history and its relevance to policing.

Positive action programme

The programme supports new applicants with protected characteristics in their recruitment journey and promotion boards to ensure we have better representation at higher ranks.

Find out more about our commitment to increasing diversity in our workforce.

Stop and Search

All officers receive training on how to conduct fair and respectful stop searches. The use of body-worn video is mandatory during stop searches and footage is reviewed to identify learning.

Every person who is stopped and searched is entitled to a receipt of that transaction. Development of a new receipt will make it easier for them to provide feedback.

Children and young people

We support young people to:

• help them understand their rights in stop and search
• demonstrate what a good stop and search should look like

We work with youth groups and community representatives to ensure young people’s voices are heard.

We are reviewing our processes and use of the power on young people from Black, ethnic, or minority backgrounds as they are affected the most.

Recording use of Section 163 of the Road Traffic Act

Officers use this to pull vehicles over and ask them to stop. We now record all stops under this power, including the ethnicity of the driver and any passengers, so we can address any disproportionality.

Trauma-informed practice

Multi-agency training gives officers insight into the traumas felt by people from Black, ethnic, or minority communities to ensure fairer, more sensitive policing.

Use of force refresher training

Annual refresher training helps us to reflect on learning about how using force can affect our communities, especially those from Black, ethnic, or minority backgrounds.

Use of force training for new officers

Training will focus on working effectively in culturally diverse situations and the impact of our actions.

Out-of-court disposals

We aim to decrease the disproportionality of  people from Black, ethnic, or minority backgrounds getting an out-of-court disposal, or deferred prosecution, and reduce the number of people entering the criminal justice system.

Lived experience advisors

These individuals will support the reviewing of complaints by people from diverse backgrounds, bringing different perspectives.

We want to be a police service that protects people from a Black, ethnic, or minority backgrounds from crime, and seeks justice for them.

Victim service standard

We are exploring ways to bring fairness to the way victims are treated and redress the difference in the way people of Black heritage experience crime and report it to us.

Hate crime

Building a network of hate crime champions, developing officers’ skills, and using lived experience advisors helps us better understand the impact of hate crime in communities and for our staff.

A multi-agency steering committee ensures the partner agencies making up the local criminal justice board work together to reduce disproportionality and become anti-racist.

Children and young people

Violence Reduction Partnership sees partner agencies work together to support young people within the force area who are most at risk of criminal exploitation and harm.

Police Early Intervention Teams work alongside the Violence Reduction Partnership, NPTs, and local schools to educate young people on different crime types, build relationships and divert them from crime.

The Crime Prevention Through Sport Fund aims to support projects using sport and physical activity to reduce violence, crime and anti-social behaviour. We work with community organisations to deliver those projects.

Behind the Badge

Workshops, together with a number of different youth engagement organisations, allow police officers with different backgrounds to engage with young people in the community, talking through their lived and professional experiences.

Cultural Awareness workshops

Officers and staff visit different religious settings to get an understanding of the cultures in their force area. The sessions help to build relationships between different communities and the police.

Read our progress reports on our work to date:

• March 2024 (PDF)
• October 2023 (PDF)
• June 2023 (PDF)