AN organisation which will represent the interests of black officers and staff of North Yorkshire Police is to be launched in York this week.
Chief Constable David Kenworthy will be among the speakers at the launch of the North Yorkshire Black Police Association (NYBPA), which takes place at the Tempest Anderson Hall in York on Thursday.
Other guest speakers include Ravi Chand, the president of the National Black Police Association, and Lisa King, the regional officer for the Commission for Racial Equality. NYBPA chairman, Detective Constable Manzoor Mohamed, and other members of the association will also attend.
The aims of the NYBPA are to support police staff from ethnic minority backgrounds, to offer a link to the county's ethnic minority communities and to help with the recruitment of ethnic minority staff.
Mr Kenworthy said: "I wholeheartedly support the launch of the NYBPA. This is a major step forward in recognising the diverse nature of our community and the cultural background of some of the police officers and support staff who serve North Yorkshire.
"Despite our overall success in terms of recruiting during the past year, we are still finding it extremely difficult to attract recruits from ethnic minorities.
"I sincerely hope that the formation of the NYBPA will demonstrate our commitment to recruiting more people from ethnic minorities and encourage them to join us, either as police officers or members of support staff."
Updated: 11:19 Wednesday, April 10, 2002
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