Essex Police has been named Police Force of the Year at the National Black Police Association (NBPA) awards.
We were praised for our work on the Police Race Action Plan, our Positive Action Engagement Plan, our fourth successive Towards Excellence Conference and our We Value Difference recruitment campaign.
Our nomination detailed the work the force has carried out by our Multi and Ethnic Support Association in relation to the Police Race Action Plan, which involved sharing best practice with all forces in England and Wales.
The force was also praised for putting diversity, equality and inclusion at the centre of our values alongside providing support to ethnic minority candidates through the recruitment process and ensuring pathways into policing are accessible to all.
This year we also hosted our fourth Towards Excellence Conference celebrating the achievements across the workforce and wider communities whilst the award also recognised our commitment to taking on honest feedback whilst also working tirelessly to improve trust, transparency, and confidence.
Lisa Leonce, one of our Essex Independent Advisory Groups (IAGs) members in west Essex, also won the Community Champion award.
Chief Constable BJ Harrington said:
“This award comes at a time when policing has been in the headlines on television for the wrong reasons and I’m so proud that the work of so many people on diversity and inclusivity has been recognised.
"This shows our commitment to policing with the consent of all communities; that is ingrained in this force and everyone in it. Ensuring we are representative of our communities means we are better able to serve them.
“Thank you to our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion teams and all of those who support and work with our Independent Advisory Groups (IAGs) who are so important to us.
“One of our IAG members, Lisa Leonce, was also recognised and won an award for her amazing work supporting us and being a critical friend on how we are policing our communities. Inviting scrutiny and challenge from our community through our IAGs is vital to ensuring that we’re policing with consent.”
Supt Darren Deex, who has led our work, added:
“We’ve had a real commitment to ensuring that not only are we represented at a national level on the national committee, so that we can share our own best practice, but also to ensure that we learn from the successes of other forces and apply those insights locally in partnership with our communities.
“Sergeant Simon Miah, our national committee member, has been instrumental in helping the force to achieve such great progress. I truly believe that we are at our strongest when we are our most representative, and I know that across the force, our officers and staff are incredibly proud to have won this award.”
Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, said:
"Congratulations to Essex Police on this achievement, together we have worked hard to build a service which is truly representative of the communities it serves and to receive national recognition of our work is very special."