Later BME progression in West Midlands Police

The Future is Bright –the Future is BAPA

Celebrating 50 Years of Black and Ethnic Minority Officers in the West Midlands and 20 Years of West Midlands Police Black and Asian Police Association

bravery after he and his partner tackled a man who threatened to shoot them after killing his wife.

In 2006 Winston became Vice-Chair of WMBAPA and national rep alongside Althea Rhodd. In 2007 he became the Chair and working alongside the Association of Muslim Police (AMP) affected much change including changes to the recruitment and promotion process, developments in stop and search policy and changes in how Professional Standards dealt with black colleagues. He feels his greatest achievement is that when he stood down as Chair he had taken BAPA to a stronger and more influential position than it was before and he saw other determined and enthusiastic people ready to continue the good work. He is now working as a Temporary Inspector and aspires to be a substantive Inspector or Chief Inspector by the time he reaches 30 years’ service.

T/Insp Winston Christie

Later BME progression in West Midlands Police

1981 – Anil Patani began his policing career with Nottinghamshire Police. He made history when in 2003 he joined West Midlands Police and became their first ever Assistant Chief Constable from a BME background.

Assistant Chief Constable Anil Patani, now retired

He has had a number of secondments to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies on a series of national thematic inspections on policing and diversity.

With West Midlands Police, he held the Force’s Operations portfolio as well as the territorial policing responsibility for Birmingham. He chaired a number of policing and partnership boards addressing the safety and wellbeing of Birmingham’s communities. During this time, Birmingham achieved the status of ‘safest major City in the UK’ in terms of crime.

He was a member of the UK Police Counter Terrorism Board as well as the Professional Reference Group for Police Leadership, with national lead for the High Potential/Graduate Entry Scheme. He has been an assessor for Senior PNAC and HPDS for a number of years.

He was also the Chair of the British Police Cricket Club from 2005 to 2011.

Anil says he always wanted a career in public service, and a career in protecting people and their rights was challenging and worth considering. ‘Going to work and not knowing what the shift held in store - and how I/we would deal with those incidents – made it anything but a routine job. My initial posting to a busy, urban station got me hooked’ .

‘I was lucky to work in good team in my early years. The challenges came, not from any public reaction, but when I applied for specialisation and promotion. Racist language, whether direct or disguised as humour, was both overt and more common in those days. It would be many years before the service would recognise institutional racism as an issue. Someone who was willing to challenge unfairness, particularly in policing, was probably a tag that I retained for the rest of my career – and probably came at a price. ’

Anil believes the service has taken big strides in addressing many of the problems that were endemic a couple of decades ago – both in terms of equal opportunities and service delivery.

In 1989, he was one of four officers (one Black and three Asian) who accused the Nottinghamshire Force of racial discrimination in the workplace. It was the first such case to be brought by serving officers in anywhere in Europe, eventually becoming the longest running Employment Tribunal in the UK. Their victory in that case became a watershed for equality in employment, and was a catalyst for subsequent changes in policy and procedures. Channel 4’s Dispatches reconstruction (Oct 1990) of the case gave it a national profile.

His most lasting memory, however, comes from a routine policing job as a constable. Following the arrest of a couple of young offenders, Anil found a hoard of stolen items in their garage, including a number of garden gnomes! He scoured through carbon copies of paper crime reports and identified that they had been stolen from a local address. With a couple of these gnomes under his arms, he knocked on the door. An old lady saw me and collapsed in tears on the doorstep. Her late husband had collected these over the years and had been a happy memory for her till they were stolen. She sent me a Christmas card every year until she herself passed away. That, to me, is quintessentially what policing is about.

Anil would say the following to anyone considering a career in policing: ‘Policing is a challenging career but a good officer makes a difference to people’s lives. Often, this is at some of their most significant moments.

The Future is Bright –the Future is BAPA

Celebrating 50 Years of Black and Ethnic Minority Officers in the West Midlands and 20 Years of West Midlands Police Black and Asian Police Association

The best officers have a passion for what they do – it’s much more than a job.

Operational competence is a pre-requisite for trust and confidence of the public, as is the need to reflect the communities that we serve. They invest extraordinary powers in us – so don’t be surprised when they demand extraordinary standards.

Being right is not enough, you also have to be effective. This combination is what gives credibility to leadership as well as networks such as BAPA. Be prepared to be an outlier on issues of values and integrity as you may well be standing alone till others catch up! As such, there is latency effect in the impact that you may have – and it’s the legacy you leave that may be the best reward.

The UK still has the best police service in the world – and WMP is at the vanguard of modern policing. Its diverse, cosmopolitan, globalised and networked context is precisely where I would encourage someone to embark on a policing career. ’

1984 – Surjeet Manku joined West Midlands Police. His parents were devout Sikhs and instilled a sense of duty and service in him, he said it was inevitable he would end up working for the police or doing something else trying to help others.

He became West Midlands Police’s first Chief Inspector and Superintendent from a BME background – becoming commander of Birmingham East in 2010 before heading up the department responsible for identifying improvements to how the force operates and the service it delivers.

He received the QPM in 2013 which he states was a real honour and totally unexpected.

Chief Constable at the time Chris Simms (who nominated Surjeet for the award) stated ‘he has changed the face of community engagement and local policing’ .

He retired in 2014 after completing 30 years’ service.

Chief Superintendent Surjeet Manku receives his QPM at Buckingham Palace