The Chief Constable of Warwickshire Constabulary Andrew Timpson has welcomed the report of he Macpherson Inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Although the force has not had a chance to examine the report, the broader issues raised have been well publicised.

The force recognises that racism exists in its ranks and, while the vast majority of police officers and support staff aim to treat people fairly, it needs to carefully examine its policies and practices to eradicate any unintentional prejudice, as well as deal with overt racism when it arises.

Andrew Timpson says:

"One of the important lessons that must be learned from the Macpherson Inquiry is that we must listen to criticism and act on it. The police service in the past has too often adopted a defensive stance which has blocked the progress and change which should result from searching inquiries such as this.

"We have a good record in Warwickshire for community partnerships and consultation, and this will be a strong base from which to tackle the issues raised."

The force already takes a multi-agency approach to dealing with racial incidents. The Community Against Racism initiative has been operating successfully in Leamington Spa for the past five years. Developed in partnership with the Racial Equality Council, the scheme has set up a number of racial incident reporting centres where people can report racial incidents in a non-police environment. Staff in the centres, for example at local housing offices, community and religious centres, receive special training to enable them to respond appropriately.

The Northern policing area operates a similar scheme, and the force has applied for funding from the Home Office to provide a co-ordinator to set up initiatives across the county.

Warwickshire has also identified equal opportunities and community and race relations training project which will include consultation with local communities to identify areas of training need and to help in developing local service delivery plans.

Warwickshire Constabulary will launch a new consultative process in April which will bring together representatives of ethnic minority communities to discuss equal opportunities issues and to monitor the force’s performance in this area.