ESSEX POLICE DIVERSITY CAMPAIGN
Following a video blog article by “Sargon of Akkad” (Carl Benjamin) about Essex Police’s diversity recruitment campaign, I wrote to the Police Commissioner who I do know from previously being a candidate of Police Commissioner in Essex, as follows:-
17th December 2018
Dear Roger
Re: Essex Police racist recruitment campaign
I gather from the YouTube video below that your Essex Police Force are indulging in so-called “positive discrimination”.
As you are probably aware “Positive Discrimination” is prima facie illegal under the Equality Act. That is unless you are compliant with Sections 158 and 159 by having undertaken the requisite research to enable you to “reasonably think” that your “ethnic minority” recruits currently “suffer a disadvantage to their characteristic” and that such recruits are as qualified as English recruits and furthermore that you do not have a policy of treating ethnic minority recruits more favourably than English recruits and also that the actions that you are taking are “proportionate”.
If you have undertaken such research and have documents showing your compliance with all aspects of the above, then please could you let me have copies (pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act)?
Whilst writing I would personally wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Yours sincerely
Robin Tilbrook
For good measure I then also wrote to Essex Police itself as follows on the 18th December:-
Information Officer
Data Protection & Freedom of Information,
Information Management
Essex Police
PO Box 2
Springfield
Chelmsford
Essex CM2 6DA
Dear Chief Constable
Re: Essex Police racist recruitment campaign
I gather from the YouTube video below that your Essex Police Force is indulging in so-called “positive discrimination”.
As you are probably aware “Positive Discrimination” is prima facie illegal under the Equality Act. That is unless you are compliant with Sections 158 and 159 by having undertaken the requisite research to enable you to “reasonably think” that your “ethnic minority” recruits currently “suffer a disadvantage to their characteristic” and that such recruits are as qualified as English recruits and furthermore that you do not have a policy of treating ethnic minority recruits more favourably than English recruits and also that the actions that you are taking are “proportionate”.
If you have undertaken such research and have documents showing your compliance with all aspects of the above, then please could you let me have copies (pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act)?
Yours faithfully
R C W Tilbrook
Chairman
In response I have had this from the Police Commissioner on 7th January 2019:-
Dear Robin
Thank you for your email dated 17 December 2018 in which you asked me to consider whether the current Essex Police BAME attraction campaign meets the ‘Positive Discrimination’ criteria, as defined in Sections 158 and 159 of the Equality Act, and if the campaign itself is ‘racist’.
I fundamentally reject the premise that the campaign is about discrimination in any way. It is wrong to describe it as amounting to positive discrimination and it is not in any way racist. I shall refute your assertions below and thereby demonstrate that the criteria in Sections 158 and 159 of the Equality Act do not apply.
The diversity recruitment campaign sits alongside Police Constable and Special Constable recruitment activity that is ongoing. No one is barred from applying to join Essex Police unless they fail to meet the eligibility criteria which apply to every applicant. The force’s ongoing police constable recruitment campaign, Fit The Bill, is a general-purpose attraction and recruitment campaign that is still live and is accessed from the front page of the recruitment section of the Essex Police website. It was promoted before the BAME attraction campaign, it is currently being promoted alongside it and it will be promoted again after the BAME attraction campaign closes.
Government policy, parliamentary select committee recommendations and national policing strategy all set clear expectations that forces do more to ensure that they reflect the communities that make up their force area. Currently the proportion of BAME officers and staff at Essex Police stands at just over 2%, considerably lower than the demographic make-up of the county with around 7% of the population identified as being of BAME origin.
The diversity campaign is an attraction marketing campaign aimed addressing (i) the disproportionately low numbers of applications by black and ethnic minority persons for the role of police constable Essex has received in the past, and (ii) the under representation of black and minority ethnic people serving as police constables with Essex Police. This is lawful, positive action, falling within the Equality Act 2010.
The attraction campaign was developed with regard to research and strategy including the National Police Chiefs’ Council Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Strategy and the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee report on diversity in policing. The government response to that report stated:
“…increasing diversity in our police forces is not an optional extra. It goes right to the heart of this country’s historic principle of policing by consent. We must ensure that the public have trust and confidence in the police, and that the police reflect the communities they serve… We believe that it is time for concerted action, prioritised across all forces, policing bodies and Government”.
The campaign was also informed by the National Centre for Social Research paper ‘Enhancing diversity in policing’.
I hope you now feel reassured about the context in which the BAME attraction campaign was devised and understand that it in no way seeks to recruit officers of any particular ethnic origin over any other. It is an awareness and attraction recruitment campaign to encourage all members of our different communities in Essex – who meet the eligibility criteria – to consider policing as a career.
Thank you for your good festive wishes. I extend mine to you and yours as well and wish you the very best for 2019.
Yours sincerely
Roger Hirst
Roger Hirst
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner
Office of The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex
I responded as follows on 10th January:-
Dear Roger
Thank you for your email on the 7th January
You talk about refuting my assertions in my email, however on reviewing my email I don’t think it can be fairly said that I made any assertions at all. What I pointed you to was a YouTube video. I wonder if you have watched it? Perhaps you should, because it was in that where assertions were made about your campaign being racist.
On one hand, I do however somewhat agree with the author of the YouTube, since, on the face of it, your “diversity recruitment campaign” does look, at first glance, as if it was treating people from different racial origins differently.
On the other hand, I am however somewhat reassured by your comments that you are not in fact treating people differently.
It is my belief that the official attempt to foster “multi-culturalism” by way of imposed policies under the oxymoronic heading of “Equality and Diversity” is part of the reason why all aspects of the British State are rapidly degenerating towards the point where even the simplest of tasks is beyond it. This is increasingly because people are appointed because of tick box multi-culturalist tokenism instead of recruitment being strictly according to the ability to do the job. In this regard I consider Government policy, Parliamentary Select
Committee recommendations and the National Policing Strategy all to be wrongly focussed on recruitment policies other than the traditional policing ones of recruiting a police force to maintain and enforce law and order.
In my email I did ask you for your research justification and I note you assert that “currently a proportion of BAME officers and staff at Essex Police stand at just over 2% considerably lower than the demographic make-up of the County with around 7% of the population identified as being of BAME origin”. Clearly there must be at least two items of research to back-up those statistics. Please could you let me have those?
I note that you pray in aid for “the National Centre for Social Research”. This is a largely publically funded quango which states on its website that “we…believe in equality and diversity, and recognise that it is essential that people are treated with respect and dignity. We believe that diversity enriches all our lives.
Legal and unfair discrimination, whether direct, indirect or by association, or perception, have become increasingly indefensible in today’s society. A diverse workforce makes organisational sense, as it adds value by bringing staff with different experiences, knowledge and perspectives together.”
I hardly think there could be a clearer statement of the kind of thinking which disrespects English history, traditions and people and which has created the level of disenchantment with the direction of British Establishment policy which gave rise to the Brexit vote!
Yours sincerely
Robin Tilbrook
Then to my amusement I then had this response from Essex Police:-
From: Data FOI Essex <data.foi@essex.pnn.police.uk>
To: robintilbrook@aol.com <robintilbrook@aol.com>
Sent: Mon, 14 Jan 2019 9:23
Subject: FOI 12512
To: robintilbrook@aol.com <robintilbrook@aol.com>
Sent: Mon, 14 Jan 2019 9:23
Subject: FOI 12512
Thank you for your enquiry which has been logged under the above reference.
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Sec1(1)(a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Sec1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon s17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
In respect of your enquiry:
I gather from the YouTube video below that your Essex Police Force is indulging in so-called “positive discrimination”.
The English Diversity Police – YouTube >>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsDeE29hfOc
As you should be aware “Positive Discrimination” is prima facie illegal under the Equality Act. That is unless you are compliant with Sections 158 and 159 by having undertaken the requisite research to enable you to “reasonably think” that your “ethnic minority” recruits currently “suffer a disadvantage to their characteristic” and that such recruits are as qualified as English recruits and furthermore that you do not have a policy of treating ethnic minority recruits more favourably than English recruits and also that the actions that you are taking are “proportionate”.
If you have undertaken such research and have documents showing your compliance with all aspects of the above, then please could you let me have copies (pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act)?
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police and in respect of Sec 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Sec 1(1)(b) the following data
· The diversity recruitment campaign is very much about addressing (i) the [disproportionately] low numbers of applications by black and ethnic minority persons for the role of police constable Essex has received in the past, and (ii) the under representation of black and minority ethnic people serving as police constables with Essex Police. This is lawful positive action, falling within the Equality Act 2010. At the moment just over two per cent of our officers are identified as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) as compared with 6.8% for the population of Essex.
· Government policy, parliamentary select committee recommendations and national policing strategy all set clear expectations that forces do more to ensure that police forces are better able to reflect the communities that make up their force area. The proportion of BAME officers and staff at Essex Police is considerably lower than the demographic make-up of the county and this campaign aims to address that under-representation.
Essex Police trusts that the information provided is of assistance. Thank you for your interest in Essex Police.
Kind regards,
Information Rights Team
Information Management Department
Strategic Change Directorate
E-Mail:Datafoi@essex.pnn.police.uk
I followed up as follows on the 19thJanuary 2019:-
Dear Sirs
Thank you for your email of the 14th January. Thank you for confirming that you do hold data. I would be grateful if you would please let me have copies of the documents which you refer to.
Yours faithfully
Robin Tilbrook
I also then wrote to the Police Commissioner asking for his comments on the fact that his claims had been undermined by Essex Police as follows:-
From: Robin Tilbrook <robintilbrook@aol.com>
To: roger.hirst <roger.hirst@essex.pnn.police.uk>
Sent: Sat, 19 Jan 2019 13:47
Subject: Fwd: FOI 12512
To: roger.hirst <roger.hirst@essex.pnn.police.uk>
Sent: Sat, 19 Jan 2019 13:47
Subject: Fwd: FOI 12512
Dear Roger
I thought you might be interested to know that I also made a FOI application to Essex Police and have now received a response from them in which they say that in fact the action that is being taken is “lawful positive action, falling with the Equality Act 2010.”
This is of course contrary to what you said to me which was that it wasn’t in fact “positive action” and that it did not in fact fall within the Equality Act because it wasn’t different treatment!
I wonder what your position is on that?
Yours sincerely
Robin Tilbrook
I have had no response to this last email, although I have had a further response from Essex Police giving me links to some of the research, which of course does not answer the question that I had actually put to them.
In summary it would seem that not only do the Essex Police and the Essex Police Commissioner not properly communicate, despite the fact that that is not what is supposed to be happening at all. The Police Commissioner ought to be in control of Essex Police, particularly on issues like recruitment.
So there would therefore appear to be a breakdown in the proper hierarchy. Also it seems probable that Essex Police are in fact pursuing an illegal and discriminatory recruitment campaign in order to improve the “Equality and Diversity” tokenistic tick boxing! Well done to Sargon of Akkad for raising this issue!