The UK government has launched a new survey to warn that the country's police forces do not racially represent the communities they serve.
UK home secretary Theresa May told the National Black Police Association conference in Birmingham today that all 43 forces in England and Wales fall short of the number of black and minority ethnic (BME) representatives in line with the BME population of their region.
"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," she said.
Incredibly, four forces do not employ any black or black British police officers at all, and female officers make up 28 per cent of all police officers but 51 per cent of the total population, she added.
This comes on top of existing statistics showing that there are only two chief officers who self-identify as BME in England and Wales, and 11 forces with no BME officers above even the rank of chief inspector.
"This is simply not good enough. I hope these figures will provide chief constables with the information they need to identify areas for improvement and for the public and PCCs to hold them to account," she added.
Following the release of the first force-by-force survey of the data on racial representation, the UK's College of Policing said it was trying to improve recruitment of ethnic minority officers, "but there are no quick fixes".
The government's 'BME 2020 Vision' calls on all public sector organisations to make their workforces racially representative and improving diversity will be a priority for the police under the programme.
May's speech also criticised claims that a rise in knife crime has been caused by a reduction in police stop and searches, calling it a "knee-jerk reaction on the back of a false link".
Changes were made after figures showed only about 10 per cent of searches had led to an arrest, with black people six times more likely to be stopped than white people.
It comes after Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said he believed a rise in knife crime in London could be connected to large reductions in stops and searches by his officers.
But May said it is "simply not true that knife crime is rising because the police are no longer stopping and searching those carrying knives".
