Dorset Police Race Action Plan

Race Action Plan 2024 - 2026

Foreword

Dorset Police is committed to making Dorset a safe county for everyone. We are focused on being tough on crime, keeping people safe and putting our victims and witnesses first.

We police on behalf of our communities and face a unique position in UK policing that we do so by consent and with the support of our people. To continue to achieve that support and build the trust and confidence of our communities, we must demonstrate that we are effective and fair for all who live, work or visit our county. It is evident that we are not doing this consistently for our Black communities.

We explored a broad evidence base to understand how policing affects Black people in Dorset. This included analysing our data, listening to our workforce, learning about the experiences of our ethnically diverse colleagues, and hearing what our Black communities have said.

When we bring all the data and experiences together, it clearly demonstrates that Black people are over-policed, under-protected, under-represented and have more negative experiences of policing in Dorset internally and externally. We cannot fully explain why we have disparities in many of our policing activities, why our own colleagues are still subject to racial bias within the workplace or why our Black communities have less trust and confidence than white people, therefore we must acknowledge institutional racism within Dorset Police and commit to reform.

In this acknowledgement, we are accepting that our systems, processes, policies, structures and unwitting actions based upon our unconscious biases are influencing how we are delivering our policing service. By recognising this, we can actively address them and take meaningful steps to build the trust, confidence and safety across all our communities.

I am committed to ensuring that Dorset Police improves Black people’s experience of policing, eliminates racial disparity and becomes an inclusive and anti-racist organisation.

Although we have made some progress, we still have work to do. It is essential that we create an organisation that is free from discrimination and enables all of the wonderful officers, staff and volunteers to thrive and develop safe in the knowledge that we want them to be themselves and bring all of their life skills, attributes and personal qualities to further enhance our service to the public.

Conversely, I will ensure that those who undermine the communities’ trust in us through their unprofessional, discriminatory or unethical behaviour have no place in Dorset Police.

As part of this endeavour, we are fully committed to the national Police Race Action Plan and have created a local plan to reflect the priorities identified by our Black communities to ensure that those from minority ethnic backgrounds and heritage are represented, respected, involved and protected.

We have created a community-based group, with representation from our internal and external Black communities to work alongside us to act as a critical friend, provide advice, guidance and recommendations, track and monitor our progress against the plan and encourage community involvement and engagement.

We also hold community engagement events, scrutiny panels and independent advisory groups (IAGs) to enable the people of Dorset to influence and inform the delivery of policing in our communities. We encourage representatives from all of our communities to get involved wherever they can.

Internally, we are working with the Dorset Ethnic Police Association (DEPA) to review our systems, structures and processes to better understand their impact and shape the future organisational model to eradicate all forms of discrimination, especially racism.

Our delivery plan reflects and prioritises the areas of importance and our success will be measured against improvements in our policing delivery, some of which will be data informed, but most importantly, it will be how our Black communities feel.

Chief Constable Amanda Pearson