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Our Race Action Plan

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The Northumbria Police Race Action Plan sets out our commitment to build trust with our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.

Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine

Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine

“My vision is to ensure that Northumbria Police is a police service that is anti-racist and trusted by all – this is my commitment to people across Northumbria.”

The plan details our vision for how we will address local racial disparities in policing and support our colleagues from minority backgrounds.

It has been developed with input from external advisory groups, the National Black Police Association and our internal Staff Associations, including the Northumbria Police Ethnic Minority Association (NPEMA).

The plan focuses on four key areas and below are some of our key achievements:

Represented - To understand and address issues of inequality around recruitment, retention and progression to bring about positive change.

  • We have introduced new initiatives to inform, engage and support our staff. This includes diversity blogs to aid discussion, ‘power hours’ on specific topics for learning, and encouraged Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority officers, staff and volunteers to engage with our mentor programme to support development at all ranks and roles.
  • Our ‘Great Place to Work Survey’ launched in May 2023 and will allow us to understand people’s experiences of working at Northumbria Police, it is part of our work to develop our culture and increase our understanding on where we need to improve.
  • We have a comprehensive delivery plan to improve our standards, ethics and behaviours.
  • We have delivered targeted recruitment campaigns to attract more police officers, staff and volunteers who are from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.

Not Over-Policed - How we interact with our communities and overcome any barriers.

  • We have developed new data dashboards to allow us to identify where we have disparity in various areas of policing to help us develop appropriate action plans.
  • We have delivered new training for Stop and Search which commenced in April 2023 with 1,016 police officers completing it so far.
  • Our new Independent Scrutiny & Oversight Board (ISOB) will scrutinise how we tackle any disproportionality in the use of policing powers, particularly regarding Stop and Search and Use of Force.

Involved - How we aim to increase the involvement of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic officers, staff, and volunteers as well as the wider community in our decision-making processes.

  • Our Community Engagement Teams have created useful guides to help officers, staff and volunteers interact with people from various cultures and faiths more effectively.
  • The Youth Independent Advisory Group conference was held in April 2023, this was based on Serious Youth Violence and Knife Crime. Around 40 young people attended and gave their opinions on how the police and partners should tackle these issues, there was representation from young people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.
  • Our Community Engagement Teams and Professional Standards Department have identified and visited groups within Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, to discuss complaints with the aim of encouraging reporting from such communities.
  • A quarterly newsletter specific to hate crime shared with partners and communities, highlighting the current patterns identified and ongoing work to address hate crime to increase confidence in reporting.

Not Under-Protected - How we protect and support those who have experienced racism and actively seek just for victims.

  • We have developed bespoke training packages on hate crime, for all front-line officers and staff. They focus on the impact of hate crime on victims and how to identify hate crime correctly and to ensure victims are supported.
  • We now have trained 300 hate crime champions within the community. The scheme is endorsed by the Northern Council for Further Education (NCFE) and has already been delivered to partners within the NHS, Local Authorities, Nexus, local charities and football stewards, amongst others.
  • A comprehensive review of hate crime investigations was carried out in the summer of 2022. This has led to the implementation of the Hate Crime Action Plan and the development of a delivery group which now meets monthly, to address performance around hate crime and deliver improved standards within the Force.
  • Our hate crime and tension monitoring groups within each local authority area allow us to discuss hate crime and produce joint plans to reduce and prevent hate related offending.

How you can support our Race Action Plan

Our Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board (ISOB) will scrutinise our progress against the plan. They will challenge us on the key cultural issues facing our police force.

We will provide you with regular updates on this page with the progress being made and discussed at our ISOB meeting.

If you would like to find out more, please contact us.

View the Northumbria Police Race Action Plan

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