The UK’s West Midlands Police (WMP) has come under fire from campaigners over a newly created diversity and inclusion role on the grounds that the job is about “wokeness” and political correctness, not policing.
The Assistant Director Fairness and Belonging job vacancy is being advertised online with a £74,000 ($101,000)-a-year salary and a closing date for applications of Jan 8.
The role does not require any policing experience, but the job advert says the successful candidate will be “managing all inclusion issues relating to operational Force activity,” and that their “influence will be felt across the Force.”
‘Political Priorities’
However, low-tax advocates, the Taxpayers’ Alliance on Tuesday accused WMP of putting “political priorities” first and wasting taxpayers’ money on the cultural “preaching” role.
“This force has been caught red-handed putting political priorities before policing,” Danielle Boxall, campaign manager for the Alliance, said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.
“Taxpayers want their hard-earned cash spent on cops fighting crime, not cultural commissars preaching from behind their desks,” she said.
“Police chiefs now need to justify these costs or refocus their funding on the frontline,” she added.
The WMP, England’s second-largest police force, has created the high paid role despite the salary being over three times that of an ordinary police officer’s basic pay and following revelations last year that it had lost over 2,000 officers since 2010 due to £175 ($238) million in Government funding cuts.
WMP justified the recruitment because the force covers the youngest and one of the most multicultural populations in the country.
“Policing this level of diversity brings complexity, challenges, and opportunities. The successful candidate will ensure the force continues to provide a fair and responsive service to all our communities,” it said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.
“This work is especially important in our recruitment process and in becoming a more representative force of the communities it serves,” it added.
Ah it’s a “sustain” function as the force is already doing it so what’s the point of paying someone £74k? That could be better used for the frontline. Majority of residents and I are not buying it. Better representation comes from greater engagement from the top not more managers https://t.co/Xp6k4Hg949
— Jay Singh-Sohal VR (@JSinghSohal) January 4, 2021
An End to ‘Waste and Wokeness’
Nonetheless, Jay Singh-Sohal, the Conservative candidate hoping to become the next Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands in May, echoed the call for the money to be instead invested in frontline policing.
He questioned why £74,000 ($101,000)-a-year should be spent on something the force is already doing and described the new senior role as merely a “‘sustain’ function.”
The “Majority of residents and I are not buying it. Better representation comes from greater engagement from the top not more managers,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Taxpayers money should be going into frontline policing to tackle rising crime across the West Midlands,” he wrote on Facebook.
“If elected #WMPCC I will put an end to such waste and wokeness,” he wrote.
“We need less of this political correctness and more robust policing,” he added.
