How far have the police embraced the notion of 'diversity' as a response to recent legislation and governmental policy initiatives?

Essay by 2metersand2University, Bachelor's January 2005

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The intention of this essay is to explore if and or how the police have adapted and incorporated the notion of diversity into their institution as a response to recent legislation.

The first thing to do was to look at the definition of diversity. Diversity in general terms is described as being;

a. The fact or quality of being diverse; difference.

b. A point or respect in which things differ.

For example, variety or multiformity: "Charles Darwin saw in the diversity of species the principles of evolution that operated to generate the species: variation, competition and selection" (Thorndike & Benhart 615/1982)

So have the police begun to embrace the notion of diversity? Do they as an organisation accept the differences between peoples and recognise the value of having that difference within the workplace? The difficulty lies with the fact that the police although overall is one body, it is made up of 43 different and completely autonomous parts, each having their own structure and hierarchy.

This could create a dilemma for the heads of each body (police service) as to how much of the diversity policy is actually placed upon his or hers individual force to take on. "If the police are to work in a multi-racial society then the force itself must be multi-cultural and there must be a genuine desire on the part of the minority to join the police service. The recruitment of members of minority groups is not a matter of the need of more manpower; it is a very urgent need to create community support for the police (House of Commons 1972/56)(Holdaway, 1991)

This statement should and must apply to all groups, whether a visible ethnic minority, gay, disabled, religious beliefs, women etc. There have been a number of legislative mandates issued to try and...