What’s all this then? Britain’s police forces are urged to ‘decolonise’ their training material

Police forces have been urged to ‘decolonise’ their training material in a bid to attract new recruits. 

The College of Policing, which sets guidance for the training of police officers, issued the call in a jargon-filled equality manifesto sent to forces nationwide. 

It wants trainers to ‘review curriculums to ensure “decolonisation” of learning content’ and check that teaching methods ‘implement culturally sustaining pedagogy’. 

The guidance is the latest move in a controversial drive by educational institutions to make lessons more diverse, with race campaigners urging them to be more conscious of ethnic minority experiences. 

Forces and universities offering professional policing courses are also being advised to ‘consider introducing gender neutral facilities’ to take account of ‘gender reassignment’ candidates. 

The College of Policing document encourages forces to become a ‘Stonewall Champion’ – an organisation endorsed by the LGBT campaign group for meeting its workplace equality criteria. 

But many Government departments that paid to be part of Stonewall’s scheme have pulled out of the programme amid criticism of the lobby group’s extreme stance on transgender rights. 

In the College guidance, training staff are also warned that ‘not giving individuals the time to reflect on unconscious bias programmes’ – which claims to look at people’s underlying prejudices – ‘may lead to unconscious bias’. 

Harry Miller, a former police officer and founder of the Fair Cop campaign group, said: ‘This is further evidence that the police only have an interest in being woke and very little interest in addressing the matters that concern the public.’ 

The new training plan was designed as the Government continues its drive for 20,000 extra officers. 

Last week it was announced that more than 13,500 officers had been recruited, 42 per cent of them women and 12 per cent from ethnic minorities. 

But police leaders have warned of an alarming dropout rate because many new officers are unprepared for the reality of frontline policing. 

In March, the Police Federation said some trainees were too scared to speak to the public, ran away from violence and even got their parents to ask for their birthday off. 

A College of Policing spokesman said: ‘Equality impact assessments fulfil a legal requirement under the Equality Act 2010. As part of fulfilling that legal requirement, this technical document shares existing research that forces may wish to consider to help them attract and develop effective officers. 

‘It is for each force to decide whether specific elements of this research would be of benefit.’