"Sexual discrimination" - police hit back
NORTH Yorkshire Police has hit back at accusations of sexual discrimination after senior officers unveiled plans to ensure that just over a quarter of the force's officers are women.
The proposals provoked strong condemnation after the target, to ensure 27 per cent of the force's officers were female, was included in a draft policing plan. It represents an increase of just 0.4 per cent on the current number of female officers.
But a spokesman for North Yorkshire Police and the North Yorkshire Police Authority insisted the force was one of the most progressive in the country.
"Senior officers strongly refute any suggestion that the organisation discriminates on the grounds of sex," he said.
"Over the last two decades, enormous strides have been made within British policing generally, and within North Yorkshire Police in particular, to promote equality of opportunity and diversity within the people who serve our community."
Status quo
The 27 per cent target, set in the draft annual policing plan for 2010-11, is one per cent up on last year's target of 26 per cent.
But despite North Yorkshire Police claiming the change puts it well above the national target of 25 per cent of female officers, critics are not impressed.
A member of the North Yorkshire Police Authority, Coun Ruth Potter, said: "It is not good enough, it is not really a target, it is just a reflection of the status quo.
"It is just laziness with an undercurrent of sexism why they are not aspiring to something more.
"I'm not expecting huge changes overnight but we need more. The new target of 27 per cent represents no progress at all.
Female
"I don't regard this as acceptable in this day and age, and it suggests to me that the police has a very long way to come before it can say it has truly modernised and represents the public effectively."
The current number of female officers employed by North Yorkshire Police is 399 out of a total of 1,500
According to Home Office figures only 11 out of the 43 police forces in England and Wales have more than 27 per cent of female officers.
A final decision on the actual target figure will be made by the full membership of North Yorkshire Police Authority on March 28.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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