Hampshire Police commissioned the University of Reading to assess the effectiveness of its mandatory Inclusion Matters course, which has been completed by 6,250 officers and staff.
The university found that 15.5 per cent of those surveyed felt “controlled and pressured to be certain ways” in the training sessions while 14.3 per cent said that “if I made a mistake, it would have been held against me”. Almost 20 per cent said “I felt I would have been rejected for saying the wrong thing”.
The university noted that “some attendees felt that they could not freely share their attitudes”, while individuals who “did not respond well to the course…may benefit from further intervention, monitoring or coaching”.
The report surveyed more than 2,500 staff at the force, including more than 1,000 officers.
Almost half of respondents said they “fully disagree” when asked whether they felt “controlled and pressured to be certain ways”. A quarter (25.5 per cent) said they moderately disagreed, while 9.9 per cent slightly disagreed.
The remaining 15.5 per cent answered with either full, moderate, or slight agreement.