CAHR students facilitate police training

Posted on 14 April 2014

At the end of March, a group of CAHR MA and LLM students facilitated a training day for North Yorkshire Police on racial equality awareness, under the auspices of the Human Rights City Network.

The training used the traveller community as a case study, ensuring that racial equality awareness was related to a locally relevant group. The day was hosted by Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick and was attended by thirty police officers and staff from North Yorkshire Police, a number of partners.

The speakers included the Deputy Vice Chancellor Dr Jane Grenville and Human Rights Defender Abdiaziz Ibrahim, who both spoke on topics relating to the impact of state related discrimination and prejudice on the individual.

Students were able to apply knowledge from their courses, and learn invaluable skills in training design, facilitiation, and using training to produce forward-looking outputs.

Mark Khan, Chief Inspector of the Selby District, North Yorkshire Police, said: "Policing is in the main about human contact, very often carried out under stress and with the application of coercive powers. It is very important that when we engage in these everyday transactions, we have the necessary skills and knowledge to understand the diverse needs of the individuals we meet. Training days such as this offer us a vital opportunity to reflect on our practice in relation to equality and diversity, and provide us with the inspiration to improve for the future. I am very grateful for the support and hard work of the students in organising the days' events, for the discussion it generated and for being very valuable critical friends. Also a thank you to Professor Paul Gready and the CAHR for hosting the event, it was a great success".