PROGRESS has been made, but more needs to be done to bring black and ethnic minorities into North Yorkshire Police.

Lubna Lazrak is general secretary of the Black Police Association and works with Unison to improve the working environment for BME (Black and Minority Ethnicity), staff.

Miss Lazrak said the force was “in a great place, it’s positive”, and Deputy Chief Constable Phil Cain “gave a heartfelt speech about what changes he wants to make” at the BPA’s recent AGM, but there was still work to be done.

She said the BPA has carried out recruitment events and gone into communities around the region both to attract BME entrants, and offer support to the communities, who may previously have been wary of police.

Miss Lazrak said concerns had been raised about a lack of representation amongst North Yorkshire Police, but that had been recognised by the force, and efforts were being made to correct it.

She said: “The Deputy Chief Constable and the Chief Constable are looking at increasing the number of BME officers in the ranks.

“At the moment we have a BME deputy chief constable, and we will look at empowering the communities. It’s a positive move forward but there are still stubborn issues, like racism and stereotypes, and there’s a long way to go, but it’s a starting point. We have never had BME at these levels. It’s an improvement, but we have to keep going.”

Deputy Chief Constable Phil Cain said the force was working hard to increase the diversity across all roles within the force, and there were currently 25 BME officers within NYP, with five more to start as student officers in January.

He said: “Of our 25 BME officers’ self-declaration, one declares as black British and four as mixed white and black Caribbean. Our total figure of BME officers now amounts to a 2.2 per cent representation of our police officer workforce and is double what we had 12 months ago.

“We are building on the success of our recent Student Officer recruitment campaign to improve BME representation across all roles. We have a high retention rate at North Yorkshire Police, so it takes time to change the diversity of the workforce – but we’re on that journey and committed to making that change.”

Miss Lazrak said: “Hate crime is on the up, no-one can deny that, and we have to recognise it, record it, and help."

“We shouldn’t have racism or hatred towards anybody. North Yorkshire Police’s DCC has said we hold hands up we made mistakes but we have learned from them and we have got to take what happened to make changes. How do we learn from this and improve from this and make sure these mistakes aren’t made again?”