Police recruit ethnic minorities.

08 Mar, 2006

Berlin police department wants to include at least 20 ethnic minority recruits in its annual intake of 200 officers this year. Members of the Turkish, Arab, Polish, Serbo-Croat and Russian communities are particularly sought after. Ethnic minorities currently make up 13 percent of Berlins population of 3 million, but they only account for 2 per cent of public sector workers. Rainer Gerlach of the Berlin police personnel department wants Berlins multi-cultural population to be reflected in its police force but recruits are slow in coming forward. Reasons cited are the difficulty of entrance tests and the rigidly standardized entry requirements, but psychological barriers are also thought to come into play. Currently ethnic minorities make up only one percent of the entire German police force compared to 11 percent of Britains Metropolitan police.