Police forces in England and Wales were challenged to recruit more than 8,000 officers from the ethnic communities within the next 10 years yesterday as the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, set out new targets to boost their numbers in the force and reflect the racial make-up of Britain, Rachel Donnelly reports.
Setting targets was recommended in the Macpherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence. In the highest target set, the Metropolitan Police has been told it must recruit an extra 5,662 officers from the ethnic community. Currently, there are only six ethnic minority officers at superintendent level from a total of 1,237 officers.
