Race

"I am delighted to be the Equality Champion for race at Sussex Police. I am committed to delivering a quality service to our communities and look forward to working with partners, our Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) communities and colleagues in the force to achieve this.

I am really keen to continue to better understand our local communities and ensure we deliver the service they need. I know that by improved engagement and consultation we can achieve this."

- Superintendent Adam Hays, Equality Champion for Race Equality work in Sussex Police.

Priorities

• To ensure that police activity in respect of BME communities is non-discriminatory and effective
• To provide support to BME individuals and communities in accessing policing services, and improve trust and confidence to increase reporting of hate crime
• To become an employer of choice for the BME community and ensure there is equality in support, and career development opportunities for BME staff and officers
• To demonstrate the Force's commitment to providing visible leadership on Race Equality issues, and Identifying, evaluating and sharing good practice to develop services for BME communities

These priorities have been consulted with BME networks, organisations and community members in Sussex.

They will remain our Equality priorities for the next four years - as required by the Public Sector Equality Duty (2011).

Our work in this area

As a public service

Priority areas in service delivery for Race Equality include the application of Stop and Search and tackling Hate crime. Gaining insight on public experiences is central to developing our approach.

A key part of this work involves engaging with people in our communities and regular consultation with our external Race Advisory Group (RAG). The RAG acts as a joint internal and external reference group.

The group has helped to inform a range of policing activities; including our strategy for recruiting a representative workforce, delivery of Race Liaison Officer awareness days, and scrutiny around the delivery of police stop and search powers.

If you would like to help Sussex police improve its service by becoming a member of the RAG email us at [email protected]

Race Liaison Officers (RLO)

The role of RLO was developed in 2013 throughout Sussex. Similar to other liaison officer roles, they receive specialist inputs to raise their knowledge and understanding, and create awareness in Race issues. RLOs act as a point of contact for BME communities, building relations to increase trust, confidence and encourage reporting of crime.

As an employer

The diversity staff support group for Race is the Race Equality Network. This is led by Detective Constable Mo Dando. The Race Equality Network provide support for BME employees in the workplace and is a network to identify organisational challenges and opportunities in the recruitment, retention and progression of BME staff and officers. The RAG also supports the organisation by challenging our policies and processes around BME recruitment, retention and progression.

If you work at Sussex Police and would like to become a member of the Race Equality Network email us at [email protected]