BAPA history booklet

1985 – Police staff member Daphne Christie joined
the force as a temp recording injury and damage
only RTC data. Almost two years later she was
employed as a permanent member of staff. She
now works within the Records Management team
as an Information Assurance Officer.
After initially being heavily involved in local and
national BAPA activities she took a step back but
recently got involved in helping to organise the
very successful 2015 national BAPA conference held
at Tally Ho! Police Training Centre in Birmingham.
Daphne Christie with her brother Winston
1987 – Shindo Barquer became the first Sikh woman to work for West Midlands
Police. She joined at the age of 21 and worked her way up to ranks to her current
rank of Chief Inspector. In 2010 she won the Chairman’s Award at the prestigious
Asian Woman of Achievement awards after being nominated in the Public Sector
category. In 2011 she won the Uniformed and Civil Service award at the Asian
Achievers Awards.
1988 – Audrey King joined WMP in October 1988. She wanted to be in a position
to help people and recalls there was a big recruitment drive for BME officers. Her
family had originally convinced her to obtain the qualifications to become a
pharmacist but after starting work in an office and being horrified at the prospect
of spending the next 40 years there, she became a special constable in Balsall
Heath. She enjoyed it so much she went on to become a regular constable. She
qualified for the rank of Sergeant after moving to the Major
Fraud Unit in 2001 and after some time in an acting post left to
join Leicestershire Police to gain a substantive Sergeant’s post.
During the riots in 2006 she felt BAPA actively made a difference
in the local community through work they were doing engaging
with local church groups and they were able to deal with issues
faced by the BAPA members.
Audrey is still serving with Leicestershire Police and tries hard to
mentor new BME officers and increase the numbers of BME
officers within her force. She feels very strongly about existing
officers doing all they can to improve things for the officers who
will be following in their footsteps. She says it would be nice to
get to a point where seeing high ranking female BME officers is
not such a phenomenon.
Sergeant Audrey King
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