POLICE have teamed up with the University of Bradford in a bid to attract candidates from underrepresented groups.

Figures released by West Yorkshire Police in response to a Freedom of Information request show that more than 90 per cent of its officers are white, with those from ethnic minority backgrounds accounting for just 6.63 per cent.

There are 5,734 police officers, with men making up nearly 64 per cent of that total.

Of men in the force, nearly 92 per cent are white and nearly eight per cent are an ethnic minority. Of women, just over 95 per cent are white. 

Males from an ethnic minority background account for just under five per cent of total officers, while females from an ethnic minority background account for 1.64 per cent. 

West Yorkshire Police confirmed it has not made any commitments regarding recruitment, for example recruiting certain numbers of people from ethnic minority communities, but said: “The Positive Action Team within West Yorkshire Police is currently driving numerous initiatives to attract candidates from our under-represented groups, presently identified as our ethnic minority communities and females.”

Some of these initiatives include creating videos and leaflets to be used in schools to promote policing as a career and giving guidance on how to join, while rating schools based on the number of ethnic minority students to focus efforts.

West Yorkshire Police said it has also been developing relationships with universities and colleges, including “driving projects with Bradford University who have a high proportion of ethnic minority students, such as police drop-in sessions to build relationships and trust and to promote West Yorkshire Police”. 

It said projects have been developed with Leeds Trinity University, the force’s current education provider, to ensure it is using all opportunities “to promote the force to our identified targeted demographic”. 

Awareness sessions for ethnic minorities and females have also been held and West Yorkshire Police has also developed sessions aimed at helping candidates complete their application, plus provided interview coaching “to offer our under-represented candidates the best opportunity of success in their application”. 

It said it had been “working with our internal partners, such as our Stronger Communities Teams to ensure continued engagement work is ongoing with our under-represented communities and to allow for two-way communication to be developed so that we can work with our communities to develop long and short-term strategies” and “developing large-scale engagement events which are run in areas identified as high ethnic minority population to promote policing”.

The force added it also takes West Yorkshire Police to potential candidates “rather than waiting for those candidates to come to us”; runs pop-up events at specific locations “identified as having high ethnic minority and female footfall” and shares and learns from best practice at a regional and national level.

West Yorkshire Police is intending to recruit 487 officers this year, 488 in 2022 and 436 and 2023, the FOI revealed.