WEST Mercia Police now has the highest levels of diversity amongst officers and staff than at any point in its history.
Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion has welcomed the news as part of a commitment to increase officer numbers, and ensure the force is representative of the communities it serves.
In all three per cent of officers come from ethnic minority backgrounds, and 34 per cent are female.
Across the workforce as a whole, 2.9 per cent are from ethnic minority backgrounds, while 46 per cent are female.
This reflects an increase of new officers recruited being female, up from 30 per cent in 2019/20 to 43 per cent in 2020/21.
The amount of new officers from ethnic minority backgrounds also rose, from 2.1 per cent to 7.5 per cent, over the same period.
Rachel Hartland Lane, director of business services at West Mercia Police, said: “It is fantastic that our police force is now more diverse than ever before, but we know there is still more work to do to on this front.
“We know we have more work to do with our black communities, for example, and I will continue working with teams across the organisation and within our communities to ensure our force is truly representative of the communities we serve.
“I want to thank everyone in the force for their considerable efforts to help us exceed our target for police officer recruitment. It was no mean feat to attract, recruit, support, train and tutor 395 student officers in 2019/20 and a further 195 in the last financial year.”
