Survey on Muslim police officers

The Guardian newspaper has published the results of a survey to establish the position of Muslim police officers within Britain’s police forces.

The results published at the beginning of July are however limited in that only 20 constabularies provided figures specifically on Muslim officers.

Despite this their findings were as follows:

• Of a total of 76,000 officers surveyed, there are only 430 male and 78 female Muslim officers which accounts for 0.7 per cent. The percentage of Muslims of the overall British population is about three per cent.
• There appeared to be a lack of data available about representation in the police service but more worryingly an apparent unwillingness to provide the information.
• Muslim officers were found mainly in the lower ranks. Around 95 per cent are either constables or sergeants.
• Muslim officers appeared to be almost entirely absent in counter-terrorism and other specialised units.

The survey has been severely hampered by the lack of information provided by many of the police forces.

To this end ‘Demos’ which undertook the survey are urging the Home Office to support a commission to mark the upcoming tenth anniversary of the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry to establish what progress has been made since Jack Straw’s pledge to create a force which fully reflected the communities it served.