Why Should the Police Be Concerned about the Diversity of Their Workforce - Assignment Example

POLICE ORGANISATION AND METHODS. ESSAY QUESTION: Why should the police be concerned about the diversity of their workforce? Introduction : The police organizations are concerned about the safety of the community. The practice of diversity and equality helps the police to do their duty with the trust and confidence of the people. The Metropolitan Police Service in it’s report on Understanding Diversity1 states that the fight against crime can be solved easily by the co – operation, experience and support of the people. This essay deals with the aspects of race and diversity. It also discusses about the challenges present in the practice of diversity. The need for diversity in work force has been explained . Later the range of diversity has been dealt in detail along with the strategies for diversity. Finally some action plans that are followed by real life police organizations to handle the diversity issue have been discussed. Diversity : Diversity refers to the discrimination among the people in terms of religion and faith, age, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, national or social origin. The above mentioned six divisions are the six legally governed strands that define race and diversity. These differences among the people must not be neglected because these differences show a direct impact on the services offered to them. To provide justice in the service and to have service integrity, the police organization has to adopt some changes in their recruitment and other working practices2. The Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)3 report on Diversity Matters says that support of the public increases when there is diversity in the workforce. The report also states that ethical values and organizational requirements are important aspects in diversity. The ethical values are related to the inter-personal relationships. According to Dr. Betsy 4 , how the officers treat the citizens is more important than what they achieve. The practice of diversity helps in providing the relevant services according to the need of the people. The organizational requirement involves the business context of policing. This may involve proper training5 and recruitment procedures. The HMIC thematic report adds that investment in these training, recruitment and retention programs can give desirable results in crisis situations, rather than spending for the losses that happen due to organizational failures. Need for a diverse workforce : The workforce of police needs to be diversified so that it can easily get the support and the confidence of the people of all communities. This helps them in preventing crime. A diverse work force also supports in detecting the crimes easily because the police personnel will have contacts from people of all communities. These people can be taken as witnesses. The police department can also get information about budding problems in the society from different contacts. This prior information can be used to curtail the problem in the beginning itself. The HMIC6 says that ‘Forces should recognize that community intelligence is as valuable as criminal intelligence’. A diverse workforce also helps in getting information easily about crimes or public attacks organized from other countries. This enables the police organization to be prepared in advance to handle the crisis. The presence of a supporting neighborhood community would give a sense of safety for the police constables when they go for patrolling. The crimes done to vulnerable societies can be investigated effectively with the support of police personnel recruited from that community. The confidence and trust of the people on the police can help reduce tension during a problem situation and further violence can be prevented. Finally invisible crimes like forced marriage, sex trade, etc. can also be detected easily with the help of diverse work force. Strategy and Range of diversity : To have good diversity practice, the police workforce has to be diversified in all the levels from constables to higher officer grades. The working environment within the police organization should be free from racial discrimination or any other unfair practices. Each police personnel should be encouraged to get good service from them. The strategies for diversity can be considered under four main categories namely partnerships and collaboration, outreach , hiring reforms and long term recruitment methods7 . Partnership is the collaboration with academic institutions or other workforce development agencies. The outreach refers to the recruitments done through mass media advertisements or recruitments in out-of-town places. Hiring reform refers to the changes in recruiting procedures. Long term recruitment methods involve recruiting students directly from schools in collaboration with the schools of different communities. The HMIC talks about the range of diversity in terms of race, internal diversity and other issues8. It adds that the race issue in recruitment procedures has been followed on the basis of occupational standards like Minimum Effective Training Levels (METLS) and Community and Race Relations (CRR) . The report also adds that special training is needed for handling gypsies, mentally retarded, hearing impaired , people seeking asylum, transgender people, etc. These diversities have been handled with the aid of supporting networks like National Black Police Association (NBPA) , Gay Police Association (GPA), British Association of Women Police (BAWP) and others. The Her Majesty’s Inspector has recommended an internal audit to check the correct level of workforce diversity. Also there must be good understanding and awareness about these support networks which are vital in giving important information. Diversity practice in real life police organizations : The home office9 states that Metropolitan police has encouraged it’s staff to submit information about their community memberships, race specific skills, languages they know, their faith and other hobbies. The ‘Met Modernization Program ’ was accepted to be implemented by the Metropolitan Police Authority ( MPA). This program covers the action plan for implementing the race and diversity issues. The performance of Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is subjected to scrutiny by the Police Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF) in issues related to diversity. The Thames valley police diversity strategy10 has proposed some key strategies. They are prevention of hate crimes and establishing Common Minimum Standards. It has devised an action plan to recruit and retain highly talented people from different backgrounds. It has also proposed action plans for managing disability equality scheme and race equality scheme. The Sussex Police has delivered a diversity strategy of Protect and Respect. This action plan has proposed some tasks in the internal working style, training offered, recruitment and management practices. The Protect and Respect board of the Sussex Police takes advice of an Independent Advisory group ( IAG ) in identifying and implementing issues related to diversity. Some of the other police authorities that practice diversity strategies in specific issues are the Greater Manchester Police11, which has introduced a childcare voucher scheme to support the staff involved in childcare work. Also the South Wales police have taken the help of gay officers in coordinating the police and gay community. Conclusion : This essay discusses the issues related to race and diversity management in police organizations. Diversity has been defined as discrimination in the form of religion and faith, age, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, national or social origin. Also the essay specifically addresses the need for a diverse workforce in a police organization. The different practical situations which demand diversity practice have been discussed. The concepts related to range of diversity and the different strategies of diversity are also discussed in the view of the HMIC’s definition of Diversity Matters. Finally the essay discusses about the real life police organizations which are managing the issues of race and diversity. From the above discussion it can be seen that police have to be concerned about diversity of their workforce. Bibliography : 1. Understanding Diversity – essential to our work, The Race and Diversity Strategy for Metropolitan Police Service , 2006-2009. 2. Sussex Police Diversity Strategy: Protect and Respect. accessed 3 October 2008. 3. HMIC Thematic Report, ‘Diversity Matters’ , London 2003. 4. Dr. Betsy Stanko , Office of Public Service Reform – Association of Police Authorities (APA) Conference , November 2002. 5. HMIC published, 2002 , ‘Training Matters’, (an inspection of the Police Probationer Training Programme) 6. Winning the Race Policing Plural Communities HMIC 1997. 7. M.L. Beeman, ‘Increasing Diversity in Police Departments : Strategies and Tools for Human rights Commission and others’. October 2006. 8. accessed 30 October. 2008. 9. Thames Valley Police Diversity Strategy , < www. Thamesvalley.police.uk > accessed 29 October. 2008. 10. Police Equality and Diversity’ , < www.homeoffice.gov.uk > accessed 30 October. 2008. Read More