Community and faith groups join chief constable to mark hate crime awareness week

More than 250 people from different community and faith groups attended an event with the chief constable yesterday, Thursday, October 17, in support of hate-crime awareness week.

The event, which was hosted at police headquarters, Wootton Hall, saw people from a variety of faith, non-faith and community groups, all come together to celebrate difference.

Chief Constable Nick Adderley spoke passionately at the event: “I hope what you’re starting to see and feel is a very different approach to how we deal with diversity and inclusion. One of my ambitions is to make us more inclusive, more representative of the communities that we serve.”

 

Talking about why that was important, he added: “It is important because people from BAME (Black Asian and Minority Ethnic) communities and different backgrounds and cultures, understand things in a different way. And we know that Northamptonshire is growing to such an extent that we are welcoming very different communities.

“We have a fantastic opportunity now that we are trying to recruit a significant number of police officers. We want to exploit that opportunity by making sure we get into our BAME communities so we start to make ourselves attractive as an employer.”

Encouraging people to consider joining Northamptonshire Police, he said: “You can join and do a three year policing degree. During those three years not only will you be paid a policing salary, but at the end of those three years you will come out with a degree and most importantly, you come out debt free.

“If you think you know someone who wants to be a part of this fantastic journey and a part of that legacy please do all that you can to encourage them to join us here in Northamptonshire Police. This only works if we work together and there is much, much, more to come and exciting times ahead.”

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold, who lamented on not being young or fit enough to join as a police officer, reiterated the Chief Constables message for people to consider applying, saying: “I’ve never been more confident of the direction of the force.”

Amrit Matharu, from the Northampton Punjabi Association, who attended the event, said: “I’ve been coming over the years and the room is full, different faces, different colours, different ethnicities and groups and it’s really nice to see a lot more, younger people here as well.

“I was in the queue to grab a sandwich earlier and there was a mother with her boy, who was asking his mum what’s going on. And it was really nice to hear her explaining in her own words to her son what it was about. And he was like ‘oh cool’. That’s really nice and quite important for the younger community to understand.”

Marion Turner Hawes, part of the Castle Fields Street Watch team who recently won a national award for improving safety and bringing communities together in Wellingborough, said: “Just by taking a bit of action, we can change where we live for the better and that’s what we are doing in Wellingborough, with the Street Watch group, with the IAG, with Community Watch. We’ve done a lot of work to come together and that’s what we can do everywhere.”