'No-holds barred' look at race planned at Hampshire Constabulary

Assistant chief constable Maggie Blyth, a former district commander in Portsmouth, is heading the force’s legitimacy board looking at the issue, and wider inequalities.

Chief constable Olivia Pinkney has tasked her with the job, saying she ‘won't be afraid to deal with what we find’.

Mrs Blyth said society is ‘deeply unequal’ and is keen to learn from the ‘lived experiences of black people’ following the death of American George Floyd and the following protest in Britain, including several in Portsmouth.

She said: ‘I think we need first and foremost to listen to our communities and listen to those members of our communities who feel discriminated against because if we don’t listen to people that does raise questions about our legitimacy.

‘The truth is that we do live in a deeply unequal society. I believe it’s a social issue, and therefore a policing issue.’

But she added: ‘I lead an organisation that wants to get it right and wants to be representing our Hampshire communities.’

It comes as latest figures show a black person in Portsmouth is nine times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white person. This disproportionality figure takes into account the difference in population.

This rate has increased in the city, while in Fareham a black person is 5.9 times more likely to be stopped, in Gosport 2.8 and Havant 9.5 times more likely.

Mrs Blyth told The News she ‘wants to know’ if someone feels they have been unfairly stopped by police. The senior officer pointed to out-of-date Census information that may skew the figures for disproportionate stops.

A pilot is running to include black young people who are more likely to be stopped and searched.

Black young men have been more likely to be fined for lockdown breaches in Covid-19, Mrs Blyth added.

She added: ‘If we don’t have the trust and confidence of our communities... it makes it very difficult for us to do our job.’

Recruiters are hoping to bolster police ranks with black, asian and minority ethnic new starters in the three-year national uplift programme.

Home Office data shows there were just nine black officers in Hampshire Constabulary at the end of March – a rate of 3.5 per 1,000 officers whose ethnicity was recorded.

But a recent analysis by the Government Statistical Service shows that 10.7 per 1,000 people in the local area are black – more than three times the rate in the police workforce.

Rates were calculated using police force area population estimates from mid-2016 – the latest year with an ethnicity breakdown.

Chief inspector Ricky Dhanda is currently the most senior officer who is BAME in the force.

Hampshire police set out in April its ‘ambition’ for at least 10 per cent of all recruits to come from BAME communities.

Mrs Blyth said: ‘We’ve got a real opportunity to make an impact and make a difference with the new numbers coming in and the new numbers coming in on mass.

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‘We’ve really got the opportunity to have that traction with a very different leadership.

‘Our most senior rank is chief inspector and I’d like us to really change that over the next few years.’

She added: ‘I think we will be judged by how we do that and represent our communities we serve - and that we’re diverse in all the characteristics of diversity.’

‘We won’t be afraid to deal with what we find’

At a recorded scrutiny meeting, published online this summer, chief constable Olivia Pinkney - the force’s race champion - said: ‘I've been in policing for decades and I know how significant the relationship of policing with race is, and how much it matters to our communities and it also matters to how effective we are at the service we provide.

'So to that end we’ve got very recently a new assistant chief constable join us, Maggie Blyth, she comes with fresh eyes and I've asked her to - no holds barred - look at everything we're doing and if there's anything we can do to improve it I want us to improve it.

‘I want the feedback. We won't be afraid to deal with what we find, and I'm determined to improve because we do live in an imperfect world.

‘We police an imperfect world, I know that and I don't expect policing to be able to solve all of the issues.

‘I am really proud of this particular service but that doesn't mean to say I'm sitting on my laurels in any way for us to be the very best we can.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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