Police Race Action Plan
Police Race Action Plan
It is two years since the launch of the National Police Race Action Plan by the National Police Chiefs Council and College of Policing, and Cheshire Constabulary remains committed to achieving the objectives set out in the wide-ranging plan.
The Plan sets out the intention and commitment of British Policing to become an actively Anti-Racist institution.
Formed against the backdrop of George Floyd’s murder by police officers in the US and the Black Lives Matter movement, it is the most significant collective commitment by UK policing to rid our service of racism, discrimination, and bias.
Cheshire Constabulary has a dedicated Inspector to ensure effective coordination of our progress, and to liaise with the National delivery team.
The Plan comprises four workstreams:
1. Represented (Internal Culture and Inclusivity)
This workstream focuses on our internal culture, how we train our people, the level of cultural representation within the organisation, and how we attract and retain staff from diverse cultural backgrounds.
What have we achieved:
- We have comprehensive training programmes for staff at all levels of the organisation, focussed on increasing cultural awareness and understanding, eliminating bias, and providing staff with the confidence and support to be active up-standers to call out inappropriate language and behaviour.
- We have a positive action programme which provides mechanisms to enabling and encourage members of under-represented groups to apply for roles within the force, and our Aspire programme supports our existing staff from under-represented groups to develop themselves to achieve their potential.
- Our 8-point promise process ensures all of our staff who are victims of Hate Crime receive a high level of ongoing support.
- We review and assess the results of the annual Our Black Workforce survey to ensure this shapes our ongoing Workforce plan, so that our Black staff feel heard, listened to and supported within the force.
We review our vetting decisions within force to ensure that decisions made are free of bias related to protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
2. Not Over Policed (Use of Powers)
This workstream focuses on how police forces use their legal powers to ensure that these are done fairly, proportionately and with transparency. There is a need to understand and eliminate any disparity that may exist towards Black people, in order to increase trust and legitimacy of the Police.
What have we achieved:
- The use of our police powers is subject to detailed scrutiny at various points in our Legitimacy Framework, to review disproportionality and appropriate use of the law.
- Powers such as Stop and Search, Use of Force and CED use (TASER) are subject to monthly scrutiny in performance meetings with a dedicated Superintendent lead, quarterly public review in the LPU Community Cohesion Groups, and our force Public Accountability Meeting.
- Increased levels of scrutiny around these powers now exist within force with line managers required to dip sample numerous incidents each month to ensure appropriate grounds were present, and compliance with the law.
- Representatives of our Independent Advisory Group also sit on these scrutiny panels, and key issues discussed in the quarterly IAG meeting.
- We have introduced from April 2024, increased scrutiny for vehicle stop checks conducted under s163 of the Road Traffic Act, ensuring that the Self-Defined ethnicity of the person stopped is recorded accurately.
- All s.60 search authorities are subject to senior officer review and debrief and published on the force website, as well as being reviewed in the CCG meeting for the area.
- Training has been provided to all staff for the new Policing Code of Ethics produced in 2024.
3. Involved (Community Engagement and Relations)
This workstream looks at the ways we interact with our communities and give them a voice that can shape policing in the best way for them.
- We have a Neighbourhood Policing Strategy which provides a named PC or PCSO for each our 122 ward areas, across our 9 Local Policing units.
- Engagement is one of the three strands of the strategy, and each LPU works to a consistent Engagement framework and plan, to ensure that they are engaging with and understanding the needs of all communities. This involves ensuring that they are communicating with, listening to, and working with Black community members in their areas to problem solve issues, and increase trust and confidence.
- Our Community Cohesion Groups give an opportunity for Community members to come together each quarter, to discuss local issues with their LPU leadership team, and to review use of police powers in their area.
- We have dedicated Youth engagement officers assigned to each LPU, who deliver a curriculum of educational inputs/interventions to protect and inform our young people, and to increase the levels of engagement with them.
- Our Residents voice survey forms an integral part of our Engagement strategy, allowing residents to tell us about how well they think we are doing, and what concerns them in their area. We can review this data in terms of age, ethnicity, disability and gender, allowing us to identify specific concerns that exist not just in geographic communities, but also in protected characteristic communities.
4. Not Under-Protected (against victimisation)
This workstream is focussed on ensuring policing processes protect against disparity in Black people being overly victimised in areas such as Hate Crime, Exploitation, Mental Health, and Custody.
What we have achieved:
- We now have technology, which provides in depth analysis of disproportionality across our different business areas. This is an area that we will continue to develop, to increase our understanding and shape ongoing plans to eliminate disproportionality.
- We have a robust Hate Crime procedure in force, with a senior lead. Each area has an Inspector Hate Crime lead, who is responsible for reviewing all hate incidents to ensure that all victims are treated equally and to the standards we expect.
- There is a quarterly Hate Crime review meeting which assesses force performance, and implements improvements where required.
- We have introduced Custody Scrutiny meetings. These are a monthly meeting led by the Custody Chief Inspector, to look at use of search, force, and treatment of detainees, to ensure fair treatment, and assess any disproportionality. These meetings are made of public independent volunteers.
As we our entering the third year of the plan, we continue to work with the National team to implement any updates/requirements introduced.
The plan is making good progress within Cheshire, and is indicative of our commitment to be Anti-racist organisation.
To review the National Plan please visit: The Police Race Action Plan (npcc.police.uk)
If anyone wishes to discuss the Plan in further detail, please email: