Police aim for more Muslim staff

Muslim police officers and civilian staff will discuss employment issues

Ways of recruiting and retaining Muslim police staff will be discussed at a seminar in Bradford on Tuesday.

It has been organised by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

Spokesman Rob Beckley said the seminar - the first of its kind to be organised by ACPO - was not in response to any specific incident.

"We want to understand the experiences of Muslim police officers and staff in the police service," he said.

"This will help us identify issues that may impact on the service's ability to recruit, retain and progress Muslim staff," Mr Beckley, assistant chief constable of Hertfordshire, added.

Delegates to the seminar in Bradford - and one later in the week in Swindon - will be addressed by senior officers from forces in England and Wales.

The conference will also hear from representatives of the National Black Police Association and the Association of Muslim Police.

'Improvements'

Chief inspector Richard Varley of the Association of Muslim Police said he hoped staff would be able to pool ideas and experiences at the seminars.

Mr Varley said his own force, the Metropolitan Police, had addressed a number of the needs of Muslim staff, but he would like to see that extended across all forces.

"I hope the seminars will result in more improvements in the working conditions and environment for Muslim staff.

"For example, I'd like to see prayer facilities at work being pretty more universal as they are at the Met where there's a prayer room at New Scotland Yard," he said.

It is not known exactly how many Muslims work for the police service, as no religious monitoring is carried out.

However, after the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report in 1999, all forces across England and Wales were set a 10-year target for ethnic minority recruitment.

Each force was set individual recruitment targets, which reflect the cultural diversity of the community it serves.

But earlier this year the Metropolitan force admitted it was highly improbable it would meet its target of 25% ethnic minority staff by 2009.