Statutory Duty Information Quarterly Report July to September 2022

Essex Police is committed to diversity, inclusion, and dignity for everyone we serve and employ, treating everyone with fairness, equality, and respect. The communities of Essex are evolving and changing, and we want to grow and evolve with them by listening and responding to actual, rather than assumed, needs. Understanding the needs of the people that live or work in Essex, and the needs of those that visit Essex helps us prevent crime, keep people safe and catch criminals.

This report is part of Essex Police’s response to the Equality Act 2010. It is intended to offer data on the equality impact of Essex Police’s employment practices and activities.

The Equality Act creates a public sector Equality Duty to have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act. In other words, to consider how different people will be affected by our activities.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. We want to deliver services which, while efficient and effective, are accessible to all and meet everyone’s needs.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Fulfil our requirements to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people (both employees, volunteers and others) who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The data presented here covers July to September 2022, and in compliance to the specific duty regulations, Essex Police:

• Publish equality objectives every four years.
• Publish information annually to demonstrate compliance with the general Equality Duty.
• Publish information relating to our employees and others affected by our policies and practices (such as provide services to communities).

Essex Police Equality Objectives

The specific duties require public bodies to prepare and publish one or more specific and measurable equality objective which will help to further the three aims of the Equality Duty.

We incorporate equality into our core business, create equal opportunities and develop good working relationships between different people. We are transparent about how we respond to the Equality Duty, as required by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011.

This report looks at how well our organisation reflects our communities, how we are perceived by the public, and how we respond and deal with crime. The report reflects the five areas within the Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy.

• Attract, recruit, progress and retain a more diverse workforce that better reflects our communities to improve confidence in Essex Police.
• Narrow the disparity between protected and non-protected groups in respect of the use of police powers such as stops, searches and the use of force. Improve the experience of policing services without reducing the legitimate use of police powers to protect communities.
• Increase satisfaction and confidence amongst protected groups, wider communities, and victims of crime. Tackle hate crime and address any complaints and concerns raised.
• Adopt and advance the NPCC Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Strategy 2018-2025 and accompanying toolkits.
• Improve inclusive culture and increase awareness and understanding of diversity and equality through delivery of mandatory training, equality data analysis, equality and health impact assessment, and effective community engagement.

The below tables detail the performance metrics identified in relation to each of the objectives, along with the direction of travel, i.e., the trend.  Please note that some metrics – such as those in relation to officer numbers (rather than proportions) – are still in the process of being built.

Objective: Attract, recruit, progress and retain a more diverse workforce

Indicators		% Sep 2021	% Sep 2022	% pt. Difference	Direction of Travel
Increase the number of Ethnic Minority officers and staff to be more reflective of the economically active population in Essex
% of Total Work Force	Ethnic Minority	4.3	4.2	-0.1	Deteriorating
	White	93.9	93.8	-0.1
	Declined to state	1.9	2.0	0.2
% of Police	Ethnic Minority	4.0	4.0	0.0	Stable
	White	93.8	93.7	-0.1
	Declined to state	2.2	2.3	0.1
% of Staff (exc PCSO)	Ethnic Minority	4.4	4.3	0.0	Stable
	White	94.0	93.8	-0.2
	Declined to state	1.6	1.8	0.2
% of PCSO	Ethnic Minority	1.0	1.0	0.0	Stable
	White	96.1	96.1	0.0
	Declined to state	2.9	2.9	0.0
% of Specials	Ethnic Minority	6.2	5.3	-0.9	Deteriorating
	White	93.6	94.7	1.1
	Declined to state	0.2	0.0	-0.2
Increase the proportion colleagues in specialist roles and leadership positions
% of Chief Officers	Ethnic Minority	0.0	0.0	0.0	Stable
% of Chief Superintendents	Ethnic Minority	11.1	15.4	4.3	Improving
% of Superintendents	Ethnic Minority	3.7	6.9	3.2	Improving
%of Chief Inspectors	Ethnic Minority	2.1	4.3	2.2	Improving
% of Inspectors	Ethnic Minority	2.0	2.7	0.6	Improving
% of Sergeants	Ethnic Minority	2.2	2.6	0.4	Improving
% of Constables	Ethnic Minority	4.0	4.3	0.4	Improving
% of Student Constables	Ethnic Minority	8.9	3.2	-5.7	Deteriorating
% of Chief Officers	Female	33.3	20.0	-13.3	Deteriorating
% of Chief Superintendents	Female	22.2	23.1	0.9	Improving
% of Superintendents	Female	29.6	24.1	-5.5	Deteriorating
%of Chief Inspectors	Female	21.3	26.1	4.8	Improving
% of Inspectors	Female	26.5	30.7	4.1	Improving
% of Sergeants	Female	27.7	27.6	0.0	Improving
% of Constables	Female	36.5	37.4	0.9	Improving
% of Student Constables	Female	42.7	45.8	3.2	Improving

Objective: Narrow the disparity

Indicators - per 1,000 population (where ethnicity recorded)		Q2 2021/22	Q2 2022/23	Difference	Direction of Travel
Understand, explain and reduce the disparity in use of force and stop and search between White and Ethnic Minority people
Use of Force incidents	Ethnic Minority	6.0	7.2	1.2	Deteriorating
	White	2.8	2.7
Stop and Searches	Ethnic Minority	3.7	3.3	-0.4	Improving
	White	1.4	1.5

Objective: Increase satisfaction and confidence

Indicators			% 12 months to Sep 2021	% 12 months to Sep 2022	% pt. Difference	Direction of Travel
Increase the confidence of Ethnic Minority people in the service they will receive from Essex Police as measured by the independent force survey
• Taking everything into account, how good a job do you think the police in this area are doing?
% Good/Excellent		Ethnic Minority	82.0	77.0	-5.0	Deteriorating
		White	81.4	76.4	-5.0	Deteriorating
• How much would you agree or disagree that Essex Police understand the issues that affect your community?
% Strongly/Tend to Agree		Ethnic Minority	61.6	61.8	0.2	Improving
		White	62.1	53.6	-8.5	Deteriorating
• If you were to report a crime or incident in the future, how confident are you that you would receive a good service?
% Very/Fairly Confident		Ethnic Minority	78.5	73.9	-4.6	Deteriorating
		White	78.3	70.4	-7.9	Deteriorating
Increase the confidence of Ethnic Minority people working to increase the number of those who feel they would be treated fairly if they made a complaint, as measured by the independent force survey
• If you were to make a complaint to Essex Police about an officer or staff member, do you think you would be treated fairly?
% Strongly/Tend to Agree		Ethnic Minority	68.0	63.2	-4.8	Deteriorating
		White	82.9	69.7	-13.2	Deteriorating
• Please say how much you agree or disagree with the following statement: I am confident that the police use their stop and search power fairly and respectfully?
% Strongly/Tend to Agree		Ethnic Minority	69.6	60.3	-9.3	Deteriorating
		White	80.6	63.8	-16.8	Deteriorating

Activity:

‘We Value Difference’ is a continuous recruitment narrative which runs throughout the course of the year. It has been active in some form since the launch of the first official campaign in September 2020. Since the second phase of the campaign was launched in January 2022, we have continued to align the narrative to our different recruitment strands.

Police Officers

We continued with our approved recruitment marketing channel plan to reach and encourage people from all backgrounds to join as officers. During the three months July 22 to September 22 Essex Police received 585 applications to be a Police Constable. Of the 585 applications received 264 were from females (45.1%) and 79 (13.5%) from Ethnic Minority applicants.

Main advertising tactics were as follows:

• Google ads
• Facebook sponsored ads for IPLDP (Initial Police Learning and Development Programme), Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram
• Bus side campaign. Mega Rears – 6 in total running for 12 months. Depots – Clacton, Harlow, Grays, Chelmsford, Basildon, and Southend
• The Pass Out Parade on 19 August, focussed on two women. This reached more than 152,000 and more than 700 link clicks to case studies and the Passing out Parade article. We also focussed on PC Brooke Smith focuses who has dyslexia.
• The Force Control Room campaign, which ran to the end of September, reached more than 786,900 people across social media. The website views for call handlers and external articles were 17,450. A total of 746 applications were made. The following link highlights one of the case studies with Tony Boothman, who was a Police Constable but was then involved in an accident and became a call handler.

Force Control Room (FCR)

Aided by an outside advertising agency the ‘Would you know what to do?’ campaign was successfully launched. The campaign was designed to promote careers within the FCR, the campaign offered opportunities to increase our diversity profile in the command. This saw 30 staff join in August and September, respectively, and with a number on flexible-fixed contracts. The gender split for the command is now 68% female and 32% male, with a key age range of 20-30 years old. This campaign is now being rolled out to LPA’s (Local Policing Area) for conversations with local partners.  We continue to look at contact channels for the public to report matters. We currently use British Sign Language (BSL), Live chat and Single Online Home (SOH). The ‘Big Word’ translation service provides innovative language services across Essex Police. This service supply’s all BSL interpretation to facilitate all aspects of BSL communication within Essex Police.   They also supply in person translation services so people who do not speak English as their first language, are still able to access our service and support.

Pride

Colchester and Southend held their annual Pride events in July and these yielded great interaction with local communities as did Basildon’s which was held in September. Southend is also the birthplace of ‘UK Black Pride’. Colchester's PCSO's and local officers have a great relationship with the Pride committee and have been involved with the event’s development. The LGBTQ+ Network attended to help with hate crime incidents, offer advice and show visibility to residents. Local charities, such as Outhouse East, were also present at Colchester Pride.

The Positive Action Team (PAT) held a series of events to attract people from diverse and underrepresented groups into policing, and to support the retention and progression of those already within the Force. The principal focus was on the police officer uplift programme and targeted activities to recruit females and those from Ethnic Minority backgrounds. Activity in July and September includes building on the internal partnership workstreams through the Community Safety Engagement Officers network to create further recruitment opportunities within community groups, schools, sixth form colleges and universities. Such initiatives help to improve relationships with our communities, as well as generate interest in future recruitment opportunities. Engagement events have also taken place at the Chelmsford Mosque and the Chelmsford Islamic Society, respectively.

Buddy Scheme: With refreshed management in place, there are currently 118 buddies assisting 88 police officer applicants. This involved a weekly meeting with Corporate Recruitment Team (CRT) Business Services and Vetting about Ethnic Minority (EM) candidates to make sure they are progressing through the recruitment pipeline. There was additional pro-active support offered to candidates in the form of both interview and online assessment workshops.

PAT have attended several events in this reporting period including during National Inclusion Week, Networking Essex and Multi Agency recruitment events.

A full review of the Essex Police website recruitment pages has been undertaken in liaison with the Media and Communications team to ensure the journey for the potential applicant is as efficient as possible. The various Staff Networks are regularly promoted on the external recruitment pages to raise the awareness and support available to all employees.  

A new Police Constable has joined the PAT. Work was completed by the team to assist personnel who undertook the Autumn 2022 PC-PS promotion boards. The Chief Inspector has also worked with HR Resource Planning to ensure appropriate consideration is given to promotion and specialist role planning and resourcing.

Increase the number of Ethnic Minority officers and staff to be more reflective of the economically active population in Essex.

The below table illustrates the percentage of ethnic minority personnel within the workforce compared to the same period the previous year. The current economically active population who identify as ethnic minority is 6.56%.

Ethnic Minority employees				Black or Black British
	30/09/2021	30/09/2022	% change	30/09/2022
% of Total Work Force	4.26	4.17	-0.10	0.49
% of Police	4.00	4.03	0.03	0.35
% of Staff (exc PCSO)	4.38	4.34	-0.04	0.69
% of PCSO	0.97	0.97	0.00	0.97
% of Specials	6.18	5.28	-0.90	0.50

• There has been a slight decrease (0.10%) in the proportion of Ethnic Minority employees in September 2022 (270) compared to September 2021 (278); this equates to 8 fewer employees.

• Additionally, 580 applications are currently in the recruitment pipeline with 45 Ethnic Minority applicants (7.76%) and 247 female applicants (42.59%).

• The proportion of Ethnic Minority Police Officers (as a percentage of all officers) increased slightly by 0.3% in September 2022 (4.03%) compared to September 2021 (4.00%), which may be attributable to our ‘We Value Difference’ and Positive Action recruitment campaigns.

• Black or Black British[1] employees represent 0.49% of the total work force and are the least represented among our employees (0.4%). Essex Police’s ‘We Value Difference’ and Positive Action recruitment efforts strive to achieve a sustained increase of under-represented groups over time and lead to proportionate work force representation in the future.

Increase the proportion of Ethnic Minorities and female colleagues in specialist roles and leadership positions.

Ethnic Minority employees							Black or Black British
	30/09/2021		30/09/2022		Difference		30/09/2022
Rank	Headcount	%	Headcount	%	Headcount	%	Headcount	%
% of Chief Officers	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%
% of Chief Superintendents	1	11.11%	2	15.38%	1	4.27%	0	0.00%
% of Superintendents	1	3.70%	2	6.90%	1	3.19%	1	0.03%
% of Chief Inspectors	1	2.13%	2	4.35%	1	2.22%	1	0.03%
% of Inspectors	3	2.04%	4	2.67%	1	0.63%	0	0.00%
% of Sergeants	10	2.20%	12	2.59%	2	0.39%	1	0.03%
% of Constables	104	3.98%	117	4.35%	13	0.37%	8	0.22%
% of Student Constables	22	8.94%	9	3.25%	-13	-5.69%	3	0.08%
Force	142	4.00%	148	4.03%	6	0.03%	14	0.38%

[1] Black or Black British comprises of Black/African/Caribbean/Black British – African and Black/African/Caribbean/ Black British – Caribbean.

• There is now at least one officer from an Ethnic Minority in every rank in Essex Police, other than the Chief Officer team.  Recent promotion process at Chief Inspector saw 10 successful candidates, three of these candidates were female.
• The percentage of Ethnic Minority Student Constables decreased to 3.25% in September 2022 compared to 8.94% in September 2021. This is often due to the Student Constable completing their probationary period and moving into the ‘Constable’ category.

Female employees							Black or Black British
	30/09/2021		30/09/2022		Difference		30/09/2022
Rank	Headcount	%	Headcount	%	Headcount	%	Headcount	%
% of Chief Officers	2	33.33%	1	20.00%	-1	-13.33%	0	0.00%
% of Chief Superintendents	2	22.22%	3	23.08%	1	0.85%	0	0.00%
% of Superintendents	8	29.63%	7	24.14%	-1	-5.49%	1	0.08%
% of Chief Inspectors	10	21.28%	12	26.09%	2	4.81%	0	0.00%
% of Inspectors	39	26.53%	46	30.67%	7	4.14%	0	0.00%
% of Sergeants	126	27.69%	128	27.65%	2	-0.05%	1	0.08%
% of Constables	954	36.52%	1006	37.38%	52	0.86%	0	0.00%
% of Student Constables	105	42.68%	127	45.85%	22	3.17%	0	0.00%
Force	1,246	35.11%	1,330	36.20%	84	1.09%	2	0.15%

• The number of female employees has increased by one in the Chief Superintendent rank but has decreased by one in both the Chief Officer and Superintendent ranks in September 2022 compared to September 2021. Recent promotion processes for both Chief Inspector and Sergeant rank have seen female applicants be successful (2 internal and 1 external Chief Inspector and 16 internal Sergeants)
• There is one Black or Black British female employee in the Superintendent and Sergeant ranks.
• The percentage of Female Student Constables increased by 3.17% in September 2022 compared to September 2021.

To support the aim of increasing the number of ethnic minority officers and females in leadership roles, Essex Police have in this reporting period, held four promotion process. During all promotion processes, the PAT complete extensive outreach through national support networks, to attract external candidates from diverse backgrounds.

Improve the confidence of officers and staff to self-declare sexual orientation, disability, and religion to better understand and reflect the diversity of the Force.

The Safe to Say Campaign was successfully launched during National Inclusion Week and will remain an active campaign within Essex Police for the foreseeable future. The willingness of staff to voluntarily self-declare their visible or non-visible protected characteristics is an important measure of an inclusive healthy organisation. Raising awareness of the support networks and promoting inclusivity generally has resulted in an improved declaration rate. The following table details this across the workforce. It is important for the force to understand the diverse make-up of the organisation and ensure that we better reflect the communities we serve.   

Diversity Category - Gender: Female

Employee Group	Headcount as at 30/09/2022	% as at 30/09/2022 & Direction of Travel vs 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2021	Position as at 31/03/2018	Position as at 31/03/2016
Officers	1330	36.20% ↑	35.83%	34.53%	31.95%	31.69%
Staff	1532	66.49% ↑	65.63%	65.20%	64.35%	63.48%
PCSOs	68	66.02% ↑	63.11%	58.18%	54.46%	60.17%
Specials	133	33.42% ↓	34.19%	32.45%	30.21%	28.49%

Diversity Category - Self Declared Gender: Prefer to Self Describe

Employee Group	Headcount as at 30/09/2022	% as at 30/09/2022 & Direction of Travel vs 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2021	Position as at 31/03/2018	Position as at 31/03/2016
Officers	4	0.11% ↑	0.05%	0.09%	-	-
Staff	4	0.17% →	0.17%	0.09%	-	-
PCSOs	0	0.00% →	0.00%	0.00%	-	-
Specials	0	0.00% →	0.00%	0.00%	-	-

Diversity Category - Religion: Declared a Religion

Employee Group	Headcount as at 30/09/2022	% as at 30/09/2022 & Direction of Travel vs 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2021	Position as at 31/03/2018	Position as at 31/03/2016
Officers	819	22.29% ↓	22.36%	21.52%	15.98%	13.55%
Staff	666	28.91% ↑	28.86%	27.70%	20.82%	18.56%
PCSOs	25	24.27% ↑	22.33%	24.55%	21.78%	15.68%
Specials	126	31.66% ↑	30.97%	28.65%	23.89%	12.63%

Diversity Category - Ethnicity: Ethnic Minorities

Employee Group	Headcount as at 30/09/2022	% as at 30/09/2022 & Direction of Travel vs 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2021	Position as at 31/03/2018	Position as at 31/03/2016
Officers	158	4.30% ↑	4.17%	3.72%	2.17%	2.07%
Staff	100	4.34% ↓	4.48%	4.45%	3.50%	2.97%
PCSOs	1	0.97% →	0.97%	0.91%	0.99%	2.12%
Specials	21	5.28% ↓	6.02%	6.64%	4.92%	3.49%

Diversity Category - Sexuality: Bisexual/Gay/Lesbian

Employee Group	Headcount as at 30/09/2022	% as at 30/09/2022 & Direction of Travel vs 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2021	Position as at 31/03/2018	Position as at 31/03/2016
Officers	181	4.93% ↑	4.75%	3.98%	2.14%	1.54%
Staff	84	3.65% ↑	3.42%	2.91%	1.52%	1.19%
PCSOs	3	2.91% →	2.91%	3.64%	2.97%	2.97%
Specials	16	4.02% ↓	4.52%	3.98%	4.45%	2.42%

Diversity Category - Disability: Yes

Employee Group	Headcount as at 30/09/2022	% as at 30/09/2022 & Direction of Travel vs 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2021	Position as at 31/03/2018	Position as at 31/03/2016
Officers	223	6.07% ↑	5.49%	4.90%	4.08%	3.92%
Staff	206	8.94% ↓	8.97%	7.95%	6.77%	6.73%
PCSOs	12	11.65% ↑	8.74%	8.18%	4.95%	5.08%
Specials	3	0.75% ↓	0.86%	0.19%	0.94%	0.00%

Diversity Category - Nationality: Declared Nationalities Excluding British

Employee Group	Headcount as at 30/09/2022	% as at 30/09/2022 & Direction of Travel vs 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2021	Position as at 31/03/2018	Position as at 31/03/2016
Officers	48	1.31% ↑	1.18%	1.03%	0.53%	0.44%
Staff	40	1.74% ↑	1.71%	1.71%	1.29%	1.14%
PCSOs	0	0.00% →	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%
Specials	11	2.76% ↓	3.01%	3.98%	2.81%	1.88%

Diversity Category - Marital Status: Married or Civil Partnership

Employee Group	Headcount as at 30/09/2022	% as at 30/09/2022 & Direction of Travel vs 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2022	Position as at 31/03/2021	Position as at 31/03/2018	Position as at 31/03/2016
Officers	1230	33.48% ↓	34.02%	36.59%	47.47%	55.52%
Staff	906	39.32% ↓	39.62%	40.44%	44.86%	51.66%
PCSOs	52	50.49% ↓	51.46%	53.64%	60.40%	54.66%
Specials	37	9.30% ↑	8.60%	7.97%	13.35%	22.85%

• There was a slight decrease in the percentages of officers who stated their sexual orientation – officers dropped to 4.93 from 5.03%, staff has increased to 3.65%.
• There was a slight decrease in the percentage of officers who declared a religion – officers 22.29%, staff increased to 28.91%.
• There was an increase in the percentages of employees who declared a disability – officers 6.07%, staff decreased to 8.94%, and PCSOs increased to 11.65% and Specials dropped to 0.75%

Understand, explain, and reduce the disparity in use of force and stop and search between White and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people.

Essex Police introduced an Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Cohesion (EDIC) task and finish group to address a range of areas relating to disproportionality, chaired by a Chief Officer. The purpose of the EDIC is to understand, address and where necessary set actions with reducing disproportionality in Essex with a focus on stop and search and use of force. The group is made up of senior leaders, operational police colleagues and key representatives from members of the public, local IAGs and young people. The group use data and activity produced for the forces ‘Use of Force Board’.

To ensure legitimacy and transparency around the use of police powers, a Body Worn Video (BWV) Review Panel has convened to review clips of officers using stop and search powers in Essex. The panel consists of a diverse membership with representation from the Black, Jewish, and Transgender communities. Attendance is monitored to ensure the membership is fully representative of the community. The panel operates a feedback process to individual officers, not only to ensure officers are learning from each search conducted but also to highlight best practise and recognising officers who use their powers fairly, effectively, and respectfully to leave a positive impression on those subject to the search.

The panel have adopted a Procedural Justice Framework survey to provide feedback for the BWV clips viewed. The outcomes of each panel are reported to the Use of Force Bord, EDIC Stop and Search Board and the Learning the Lessons Board to ensure learning is shared.

Use of Force[2]

Use of Force per 1000 population							Ratio to White
	White	Mixed	Asian or Asian British	Black or Black British	Chinese or Other Ethnic Group	Total Other than White	Mixed	Asian or Asian British	Black or Black British	Chinese or Other Ethnic Group	Total Other than White
Force	2.68	3.08	3.60	14.31	13.07	7.17	1.15	1.34	5.34	4.88	2.68

The above table shows a breakdown of Use of Force incidents per 1,000 population and the ratio of various ethnicities to White people across the Force for reporting period 1 July 2022 to 30 September 2022.

• Ethnic Minority individuals are 2.68 times more likely to have force used upon them than White individuals. This is an increase from that reported in the previous reporting period, when Ethnic Minorities were 2.67 times more likely to have force used upon them than White individuals.

When compared to the Most Similar Group of Police Forces (MSG), Essex has the fourth highest Ethnic Minority to White ratio for Use of Force, but the second lowest Black to White ratio[3].

Stop and Search per 1000 population							Ratio to White
	White	Mixed	Asian or Asian British	Black or Black British	Chinese or Other Ethnic Group	Total Other than White	Mixed	Asian or Asian British	Black or Black British	Chinese or Other Ethnic Group	Total Other than White
Force	1.51	2.76	1.83	5.45	4.40	3.29	1.83	1.21	3.61	2.91	2.18

The above table shows a breakdown of stop and searches per 1,000 population and the ratio of various ethnicities to White across the Force in this reporting period.

• Ethnic Minority individuals are 2.08 times more likely to be stop and searched than White individuals. This is a slight decrease from that reported in the previous reporting period, when Ethnic Minorities were 2.18 times more likely to be stop and searched than White individuals.
• Operational Police Command (OPC) invited a colleague to a recent command D&I Board to discuss how policing can improve engagement with members of the public who are Autistic, particularly when officers are utilising their policing powers. For example, the input discussed the use of sensory aids during stop and search or at roadsides. This input led to the Roads Policing Unit developing sensory packs located within police vehicles which will assist future interactions.

Nationally, Essex ranks 6 out 8 in the Ethnic Minority to White ratio in our Most Similar Group (MSG) and has the third lowest Black to White ratio[4].

[1] MSG data are for the period November 2021 – April 2022.

[2] The Use of Force data analysed in this report includes instances where multiple forms have been submitted in relation to the use of force against one subject.  This is because one use of force form should be submitted by every officer who used force. Therefore, if three officers use force against one subject in relation to the same incident, three forms should be submitted, and the subject would appear three times in the data for that same incident.

[3] Home Office data 2020-21.

[4] MSG data are for the period November 2021 – April 2022.

Activity

North LPA (Local Policing Area)

The Equality focus panel continues to meet to review use of force and stop and searches for disproportionality across the North LPA. This is also reviewed at the EDIC stop and search board that is attended by the NLPA Command team representative. Any learning from the panel is always shared along with positive feedback for all involved.

Strong IAG engagement continues in the NLPA where they are open to challenge and scrutiny. New district commanders in all four districts are actively engaged in them and seeking to continue to develop and move forward. IAG members have recently been invited to take part in the North LPA victim focus panel which was extremely well received.

South LPA

The South LPA’s Body Worn Footage of Stop and Searches (S&S) is reviewed monthly. 10 clips are chosen at random and reviewed by Inspectors (4 from Basildon, 4 from Southend, and 2 from Castle Point & Rochford), and then 4 of these will be subject to panel scrutiny. Our performance on S&S is a standing agenda item at the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) meeting. These meetings have included a discussion around the procedure for apologising/thanking people for their time.

Bespoke training has been provided to both Community Policing and Local Policing Teams following an academic Stop and Search (S&S) review by DCI Hutchinson. Individual Inspectors are monitoring S&S performance and accountability to establish where support is required.

West LPA

The Challenge Panel meeting has been set up to ensure Fairness and Equality. The themes for this include stop & search, recruitment, hate crime and community tensions. In addition to this, CSEO’s have been holding focused park meets and engaging with residents. This is intended to be emulated in other areas.

‘Be the Change’ Sergeant training is ongoing and now includes a comprehensive DEI briefing by the D&I Manager.

District Commanders wherever possible are conducting retention interviews. District Commanders will seek to ask questions around the reason or reasons for leaving and what if anything can they do to retain staff. Exit interviews and Your Voice Forum also explore why officers leave the LPA.

[5] Data supplied by SMSR: Social & Market Strategic Research. Data to June 2022.

Extensive activity takes place across all commands to ensure confidence and satisfaction levels improve across many areas. To improve in this area, policing must be seen to act legitimately, ethically and are transparent in our activity and scrutiny.

Increase the confidence of Ethnic Minority people in the service they will receive from Essex Police as measured by the independent force survey

There is no significant statistical difference in White and Ethnic Minority respondents’ views for many questions. Where significant differences do exist, these tend to relate to perceptions of fairness for example in the use if stop search powers and treatment of complaints.

Respondents were asked the following questions:

• “Taking everything into account, how good a job do you think the police in this area are doing?” (Q13b)
• “How much would you agree or disagree that Essex Police understand the issues that affect your community?” (Q4)
• “If you were to report a crime or incident in the future, how confident are you that you would receive a good service from Essex Police?” (Q10)

Q13b	White % Good/Excellent (NET)	Ethnic Minority % Good/Excellent (NET)
12m to Dec 2020	76.6%	72.1%
12m to Mar 2021	79.4%	78.3%
12m to Jun 2021	79.9%	79.1%
12m to Sep 2021	81.4%	82.0%
12m to Dec 2021	80.4%	76.3%
12m to Mar 2022	79.4%	76.1%
12m to Jun 2022	78.4%	74.0%
12m to Sep 2022	76.4%	77.0%

• “How much would you agree or disagree that Essex Police understand the issues that affect your community?” (Q4)

Q4	White % Strongly/Tend To Agree (NET)	Ethnic Minority % Strongly/Tend To Agree (NET)
12m to Dec 2020	71.4%	70.1%
12m to Mar 2021	71.3%	72.5%
12m to Jun 2021	67.7%	68.0%
12m to Sep 2021	62.1%	61.6%
12m to Dec 2021	60.5%	56.8%
12m to Mar 2022	57.3%	59.4%
12m to Jun 2022	54.5%	61.1%
12m to Sep 2022	53.6%	61.8%

• “If you were to report a crime or incident in the future, how confident are you that you would receive a good service from Essex Police?” (Q10)

Q10	White % Very/Fairly Confident (NET)	Ethnic Minority % Very/Fairly Confident (NET)
12m to Dec 2020	76.3%	75.8%
12m to Mar 2021	77.8%	80.3%
12m to Jun 2021	77.7%	79.9%
12m to Sep 2021	78.3%	78.5%
12m to Dec 2021	76.3%	73.3%
12m to Mar 2022	75.1%	72.7%
12m to Jun 2022	73.4%	70.7%
12m to Sep 2022	70.4%	73.9%

Ethnic Minority response to Q4, remain the same at 62% white responses have dropped to 54% to Q4, Q10 sees all respondents drop in confidence. Q13b also sees a drop in confidence in the 12 months to September 2022 compared to the same period in the previous year.

• Q13b: “Taking everything into account, how good a job do you think the police in this area are doing?”. 5% pts. decrease for both respondents for the 12 months to September 2022 compared to the same period in the previous year. The confidence gap between White and Ethnic Minority respondents is now just 1% pts the same as previous period in the last year.
• Q4: “How much would you agree or disagree that Essex Police understand the issues that affect your community?”.  Ethnic responses remain at 62%, white responses have dropped 8% year on year. White respondents showed a lower level of confidence down 8%pts. (62% for Ethnic Minority respondents and 54% for White respondents) in the 12 months to September 2022 compared to the same period in the previous year. Confidence remains the same as previous year for Ethnic respondents. The level of confidence for Ethnic Minority respondents is 8% pts higher compared to White respondents.
• Q10: “If you were to report a crime or incident in the future, how confident are you that you would receive a good service from Essex Police?”.  Ethnic Minority respondents showed a higher level of confidence (74%) compared to White respondents (70%) in the 12 months to September 2022; this is a decrease of 8% pts for White respondents compared to the same period the previous year. Ethnic Minority respondents showed a decrease of 5% pts. compared to the same period the previous year. The disparity increased the same in the 12 months to September 2022 compared to the same period in the previous year. The level of confidence for Ethnic Minority respondents was down5% pts, white respondents is down 8%.

Increase the confidence of Ethnic Minorities, working to increase the number of those who feel they would be treated fairly if they made a complaint, as measured by the independent force survey

Respondents were asked the following questions:

• “If you were to make a complaint to Essex Police about an officer or staff member, do you think you would be treated fairly? (Q7)

Q7	White % Yes	Ethnic Minority % Yes
12m to Dec 2020	81.0%	74.2%
12m to Mar 2021	82.6%	73.8%
12m to Jun 2021	86.0%	76.6%
12m to Sep 2021	82.9%	68.0%
12m to Dec 2021	77.2%	58.7%
12m to Mar 2022	75.4%	60.3%
12m to Jun 2022	72.5%	60.5%
12m to Sep 2022	69.7%	63.2%

• “Please say how much you agree or disagree with the following statement: I am confident that the police use their stop and search power fairly and respectfully” (Q15)

Q15	White % Strongly/Tend To Agree (NET)	Ethnic Minority % Strongly/Tend To Agree (NET)
12m to Dec 2020	76.5%	65.0%
12m to Mar 2021	78.2%	70.9%
12m to Jun 2021	79.8%	71.6%
12m to Sep 2021	80.6%	69.6%
12m to Dec 2021	76.3%	57.7%
12m to Mar 2022	70.8%	61.9%
12m to Jun 2022	67.9%	60.0%
12m to Sep 2022	63.8%	60.3%

• All respondents answered less positively in the 12 months to September 2022 compared to the same period in the previous year to Q7 and Q15.

• Q7: “If you were to make a complaint to Essex Police about an officer or staff member, do you think you would be treated fairly?”.  Ethnic Minority respondents’ confidence decreased by 5% pts. in the 12 months to September 2022 compared to a decrease of 13% pts. for White respondents. The disparity decreased from 15% pts. to 7% pts. compared to the same period in the previous year.

• Q15: “Please say how much you agree or disagree with the following statement: I am confident that the police use their stop and search power fairly and respectfully”.  All respondents’ confidence decreased. White respondents dropped by 17% pts, Ethnic Minority respondents dropped by 10% in the 12 months to September 2022 compared to the 12 months to September 2021. The disparity was 11% and has now dropped to 4%.

Example of activity to increase confidence and satisfaction:

Coffee & Cops at Colchester Deaf club

For the first time Essex Police attended Colchester Deaf Club with a BSL signer and Fraud Prevention Co-ordinator. The 40 attendees received a fraud input with BSL translation. Local PC, Dex Adams introduced himself to the deaf community and invited questions on his role. This community engagement session provided valuable interaction with a vulnerable section of our community. This allows us to work with partner agencies and community organisations to provide local solutions.

West LPA

A review was undertaken using new census data to identify need to reach communities. The Thurrock Challenge Panel continued, and the command now has an ambition to establish a similar project in Harlow in Spring 2023.

Project Certus is a strategic objective project brought about to increase satisfaction and confidence amongst protected groups, wider communities, and victims of crime. One of the aims through the project is to make it easier to address any complaints and concerns raised. This enables the reviewing of Police BWV and Use of Force data. Project Certus continued with BWV being shown routinely to IAGs across the West LPA area.

Implement and conduct a quarterly review of ongoing action aligned with the NPCC toolkit

The NPCC/APCC Policing vision 2025 states that (by 2025) policing will be a profession with a more representative workforce that will align the right skills, powers, and experiences to meet challenging requirements. The delivery plan produced was a template for Chief Constables to provide leadership and cultural change to deliver NPCC/APCC Vision 2025.  The delivery plan sets out the key components to successfully achieving the vision by focussing on:

• Leadership and culture
• Attraction/recruitment
• Retention
• Progression
• Wellbeing and fulfilment
• Exit from service with dignity

There are 4 toolkits in total, broken down into 9 areas on the online action tracker:

1. Our Leadership and Culture (NPCC Workforce Representation - Attraction, Recruitment, Progression and Retention Toolkit)

2. Attraction and Recruitment (NPCC Workforce Representation - Attraction, Recruitment, Progression and Retention Toolkit)                                    

3. Retention (NPCC Workforce Representation - Attraction, Recruitment, Progression and Retention Toolkit)                 

4. Progression (NPCC Workforce Representation - Attraction, Recruitment, Progression and Retention Toolkit)  

5. Wellbeing and Fulfilment (NPCC Workforce Representation - Attraction, Recruitment, Progression and Retention Toolkit)

6. Exit from service with dignity (NPCC Workforce Representation - Attraction, Recruitment, Progression and Retention Toolkit)

7. NPCC Our Communities Toolkit

8. NPCC Our Organisation Toolkit

9. NPCC Our Partners Toolkit

Toolkit area	Actions started January 2022	Completed Actions to date	Actions not started	Total of Actions per toolkit area
1	17	17	0	17
2	3	28	0	31
3	1	8	0	9
4	2	6	0	8
5	5	5	0	5
6	2	5	0	7
7	3	6	0	9
8	11	11	0	11
9	2	4	2	8
Total	46	90	2	105

The Diversity and Inclusion Team are responsible for enabling and supporting progress against each action. Essex Police have chosen to adopt this national toolkit and included the delivery of it within the Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

It should be noted that the current Toolkit will be replaced by the forthcoming Police Race Action Plan and its related toolkit.

The Pearlcatchers training is now in its latter stages and the mandatory content will be provided in-house in the months and years ahead. The training was launched on 14 July 2021 and is called ‘Leading Difference and Inclusion’ and focussed on the leader’s cohort (Sergeant and police staff grade SO1) between July 2021 and January 2022.  The training for the wider workforce commenced 17 January and will run through to November 2022.

• Phase 1 has concluded and has provided training for around 1,400 leaders (PS and SO1 and above).  This has been delivered in 2 modules with a commitment to embedding change through an action plan captured via a PDR objective.  Ten supporting monthly videos and podcasts will be launched monthly from early 2023.
• Phase 2 will provide training for around 5,200 of the general workforce between January - November 2022.  This is being delivered in 1 module. At the end of this reporting period, 3069 officers/staff and volunteers have already attended the training with a further 1038 booked on future sessions.
• Phase 3 will create an annual refresher online package for use from December 2022. 

Thereafter, the intellectual rights of this product will be owned, and training will be delivered by Essex Police Learning & Development Department.  Survey results indicate a strong increase in knowledge and understanding across the Leaders cohort and a positive response from the general workforce.

Develop a diversity dashboard to monitor our progress against our objectives.

The Performance Analysis Unit have developed a Diversity Dashboard which includes: Victims, Suspects, Arrests, Outcomes, DA, Hate Crime, Honour Based Crime, Racial Crime, Sexual Offences and Community Resolutions. Separate dashboards for Stop and Search and Use of Force have also been developed and is now delivered monthly.

LGBT Representation

There was an increase in the percentages of officers and staff who stated their sexual orientation - officers 5.03% (completion rate 67.23%), staff by 3.49% (completion rate 68.36%). The completion rate includes ‘prefer not to say.’

Example of activity to improve inclusive culture:

National Inclusion week 2022 had the theme of 'Time to Act: The Power of Now'. The week had Virtual events daily apart from Wednesday which was our in-person event.

Wednesday 26th September saw all our support networks come together for our in-person Event. The day was supported by the Police Federation and the Call4Backup charity. At the height of the event over 100 people attended. The attendees ranged from new recruits going through their initial training up to the Deputy Chief Constable of Essex Police. All Staff Networks signed up new members. The virtual events were opened by Richard Leicester Director or HR. Vernal Scott, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, spoke on Inclusion at Essex Police.  

Tuesday saw the Men’s Forum discuss infant loss, and male suicide. WLDF (Women’s Leadership & Development Forum) spoke on HeForShe, White Ribbon Day and VAWG.

Thursday saw LGBTQ+ Network present Dan the Man and Myth Busting. Thursday was also Carers First / Disability and Carers Network. The Safe to say campaign was launched during National Inclusion Week. The Safe to Say campaign is designed to promote declaration of protected characteristics.

Friday 30th September was the turn of MESA – they spoke about MESA and how they promote inclusion within Essex.  

The following quote was received from an Essex Police Employee

“What struck me more than anything was what a great set of people we have in Essex Police and I was so moved seeing such a lot of happy smiley positive faces! I felt energised when I went home.”

The pictures below are from the in-person event mentioned previously.

HeForShe Inputs

Essex Police adopted the HeForShe gender equality programme. The programme encourages both men and women to take action to create a gender equal world. The HeForShe programme has the  Deputy Chief Constable Andrew Prophet as the Chief Officer lead. Angela Mack is the tactical lead for HeForShe. Angela delivered numerous inputs across the Force to promote this initiative. By doing these inputs HeForShe ambassadors were identified to support the initiative across the Force. 

Diversity Equality Inclusion Briefing Sessions.

Vernal Scott Essex Police’s D&I Manager delivered DEI Briefing sessions to new recruits, newly promoted Sergeants and Inspectors. These interactive sessions are designed to promote the D&I Strategy , prompt discussion around the 9 protected characteristics, promote inclusion within the workplace. These on-going sessions give us the best opportunity to attract and retain our diverse talent.

Performance Information and Data

How Essex Police perform is reported to the Office for Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC) on a monthly and quarterly basis. This data includes information on Hate Crime offences at a force and district level. This data can be found on the following link:

Essex Police Performance - Essex Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner (pfcc.police.uk)

The Police and Crime Commissioner also publishes quarterly reports on Essex Police conduct matters. This data includes a breakdown of complaints by ethnicity group. This data can be found on the following link:

Conduct & Professional Standards - Essex Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner (pfcc.police.uk)

Pay Equality

Each year Essex Police publish, separately to this report, an Equality Pay Gap report. The 2021 report was published in Spring 2022 on the Essex Police website:

Gender pay gap | Essex Police

Essex Police: Workforce Distribution

Each year Essex Police publish via the OPFCC website, a report which relates to the force’s attendance, strength full time equivalent (fte), turnover and diversity profiles. The link to this report is provided below:

https://www.essex.pfcc.police.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/7.0-HR-Commentary-2021-Mar-21-v0.7-Final-approved-15.04.21-update.pdf