BAPA history booklet

Foreword
‘I want to work in a diverse team’
This year we celebrate 50 years since the first BME
officer joined the police service in the West Midlands
and 20 years since the launch of WMP Black and Asian
Police Association (BPA), one of the first in the UK.
On the 16th March 1966 Mohamed Yusuf Daar became
the first BME police officer in the West Midlands when
he joined what was then Coventry City Police.
On the 1st January 1996 black officers and support staff met for the first time
to explore their reality in the Police service and to share openly their feelings
and experiences. They saw the need to address the high number of black
officers leaving the service and from this an informal social network was
established. The following 12 months saw the BPA go from strength to
strength. On the 1st August 1997 the West Midlands BPA was formally
launched in recognition of its achievements by the Chief Constable and the
Lord Mayor of Birmingham.
Today West Midlands Police is engaged in an ambitious programme of change.
It is one that seeks to make us a modern service with traditional values. Those
values echo the vision of Peel’s 1829 policing principles: the police are the
public and the public are the police and most importantly the role of the
police to secure public favour by "A ready offering of individual service and
friendship to all members of society without regard to their race or social
standing". Our new values are clear. We want to work in a diverse team and to
challenge unreasonable and discriminatory behaviour.
In so many ways we can adopt these values and pursue a stronger agenda on
fairness and equality because of the struggle of our diverse staff. They stepped
forward to play an active part in policing. In many cases they have faced
barriers and discrimination. They have certainly powerfully advocated for
fairer policing to all communities. I think those efforts are bearing fruit.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to the people in this book and also to
all Black and Asian officers and staff past and present who continually display
strength, courage and compassion. They have made and continue to make
West Midlands Police an organisation I am proud to lead as Chief Constable.
Chief Constable David Thompson QPM
West Midlands Police
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