Dorset Police

Dorset Police have recently been ensuring that Officers are culturally sensitive to an increasingly multicultural population in the area by engaging with local communities of diverse ethnic origins. This is to ensure that “closed” communities do not develop, and also to make sure that the service provided by the police is understood and that all members of the public
have confidence in them.

Chief Inspector Nick Maton attended the Islamic diet and culture seminar organised for businesses as part of the RLN’s Culture and Languages Skills Project in May 2007, and requested that the RLN provide a similar event for Officers in the aftermath of terror threats in the UK raising the security level to “critical” in Summer 2007. He explains:

“We encourage officers to be aware of the cross-cultural differences within our community to build good relations, and to reassure the public that we are working for the benefit of society as a whole. We were keen to make our officers more aware of some of the issues around Islam given the current climate and, with the help of the RLN’s network, we have succeeded in doing so on two fronts.

"Firstly, supervisors in the Western Division now have a much greater understanding and confidence in dealing with the Islamic community and will be able to pass on those insights to officers on the frontline. Secondly, we now have good relations with local leaders, which will help us all to work together effectively. Since the seminar I was invited to speak at the local mosque and now have an open dialogue, which can only serve to create better understanding on all sides.”

On 4th and 13th December 2007, twenty-two Supervising Officers from Dorset Police Western Division enjoyed two Islam awareness training courses organised by the RLN SW. These included a cross-cultural overview by the RLN SW facilitator James Piriou, an introduction to Islam by Neil Payne of Somerset-based language and cross-cultural specialists Kwintessential, then Syrian and Algerian halal food prepared by Maisa Gazal and RLN languages volunteer Said Lakehal. An introduction to Arabic language and culture was given Maisa Gazal and Dr. Moosa, an Iraqi who has lived and worked in the UK for twelve years.

Feedback from the seminars was overwhelmingly positive. Officers said that learning about Islam and a few phrases in Arabic would help them to work more closely with the Islamic community in the area, particularly with regard to conducting interviews and searching premises.

James Piriou said, “I’m glad the courses fulfilled the aims for the Officers. All the participants went away with a much greater understanding, both in terms of the culturally specific issues around Islam, and of the difficult path that the police has to tread when carrying out their duties. There were some frank exchanges, which enabled everyone to air their views and come away feeling they had been understood and were respected. This is key to living in multicultural world, and will be positive for community cohesion”.

Visit the Dorset Police website at www.dorset.police.uk.

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