'More ethnic police chiefs needed'

Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Cheshire, told the BBC that people could have a problem with their "face not fitting" into traditional organisations such as the police and that more work needed to be done to challenge the prevailing culture.

He warned that the police service was at risk of relying on a few individuals to fight their way up.

Policing was almost unique "in that people have to work their way up from the bottom to get to the top" which, he said, took a long time.

"The other weakness of the system is that you are then relying on individuals to fight their way up through the organisation," he said. "You are asking those individuals not only to be really good senior police leaders, but also almost to be role models and standard bearers and almost fight the prevailing culture to make sure that they get to the top."

Mr Fahy, who is the Association of Chief Police Officers lead on Workforce Development and formerly covered Race and Diversity, called for the police to look to more dynamic organisations where people from different backgrounds and with different approaches were "recognised and valued".

He said: "There is a danger in a police force which has got a hierarchy and long traditions... you tend to mould people to act in a particular way and that can work against people from ethnic minorities."

Currently, seven out of more than 200 officers at assistant chief constable rank and above are from ethnic minorities, the BBC reported.

Responding to Mr Fahy's comments, Metropolitan Police Commander Ali Dizaei told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme that the system was "based on who was acceptable rather than suitable".

He said: "We are told a lot of anecdotal evidence and representations from black and Asian officers and support staff up and down the country that they have to work twice as hard to get recognised."