POLICE have admitted they are not yet representative of the communities they serve but are making some significant strides towards this.

It comes after data showed female recruits made up just 42 per cent of the 828 police officers hired by West Yorkshire Police (WYP) between April 2020 – when gender breakdowns of new officers were first recorded nationally – and March this year.

A WYP Chief Constable also highlighted that reports of inappropriate behaviours, including sexism, are recorded, investigated and dealt with robustly.

The ratio of female to male police officers at WYP has risen slightly from 35 per cent in March 2019 to 37 per cent this year, but critics argue the uplift has not gone far enough to make police forces representative of their communities.

Jemima Olchawski, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, a charity campaigning for gender equality, said that trust in the police had been "shaken" by a "culture of misogyny" in certain forces.

Women made up at least half of new recruits in just three forces – Lancashire, Great Manchester, and Derbyshire.

The figures are a headcount of the number of people hired – female officers are also more likely to work part-time, meaning that the number of them on the streets is likely to be lower than these numbers suggest.

Separate snapshot data from the Government’s Gender Pay Gap Service shows that across all jobs at WYP, women were earning 16 per cent less than their male counterparts as of March 31, 2021.

A total of 13,576 extra officers have joined police ranks across England and Wales since November 2019, including 589 in West Yorkshire.

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Kate Riley said: “We are committed to making WYP representative of the diverse communities we serve.

“We have a number of initiatives to encourage females to join the police including bespoke marketing and positive action campaigns. 

“Our overall female officer representation is 37.2 per cent compared with 34.4 per cent nationally. The proportion of females recruited to the force in the last 12 months is 46.9 per cent. 

“Whilst we are not yet representative of the communities we serve, we are making some significant strides towards this.

“We are underway with a mandatory training programme and have repeated messages about inappropriate behaviours, including sexism. This includes encouraging individuals to report either anonymously or in person. Those reports are recorded, investigated and dealt with robustly.”