The Reform party\u2019s promise to abolish policies on equality and diversity is \u201cludicrous\u201d and threatens to take policing and society backwards, one of the country\u2019s most senior chief constables has said.<\/p>\n
Serena Kennedy<\/a> retires on Sunday as the chief constable of Merseyside police, after a tumultuous four years in charge.<\/p>\n She led its response to the Southport dance class murders last year, the riots that followed and led the way on giving ethnicity and nationality details of suspects, to counter disinformation.<\/p>\n In a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian, Kennedy said the riots in Southport started with \u201ccarloads\u201d of people arriving to attack a mosque, and dismissed claims that asylum seekers were to blame for a crime wave.<\/p>\n She also called for a new national scheme to counter violence, and criticised politicians including the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, for making questionable statements at times of heightened tension, such as immediately after last summer\u2019s Southport riot.<\/p>\n Reform UK, which recently won local councils and is predicted to win more in elections next May, is vowing to scrap what it calls DEI initiatives \u2013 the term used by Donald Trump supporters \u2013 on diversity, equity and inclusion.<\/p>\n Kennedy said: \u201cI have a real nervousness that we are going backwards in relation to diversity and equality.\u201d<\/p>\n She said those groups with less confidence in policing<\/a> and other public services, such as ethnic minorities and women, needed efforts by key institutions such as the police to win their trust back.<\/p>\n Kennedy said: \u201cIs it acceptable for policing and the public sector to stop worrying about those people where there is a confidence gap and say, well that\u2019s just tough, and we\u2019ll let that confidence gap get even wider? \u2026 Absolutely not. That\u2019s why the diversity and equality and inclusion strategies and the focus on it are so important.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause the lines that are being trotted out around \u2018we should treat everybody equally\u2019 \u2013 yeah, we should. Everybody should experience the same quality of service from policing or the public sector, but unfortunately they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd to level up that confidence gap, that difference in service, you have to have some dedicated resources to do that, both inside the organisation, focusing internally on your culture, and externally.<\/p>\n \u201cTo say that you can \u2026 lessen that confidence gap, to say that you can make sure that everybody is experiencing the same quality of service without some dedicated resources to do it is just ludicrous.\u201d<\/p>\n Kennedy\u2019s retirement from policing, leaves her free to voice not just her concerns, but also those of other senior figures concerned by intense attacks on policing by rightwing political figures.<\/p>\n She said political attacks on diversity and inclusion, and groups targeting asylum hotels, were causing problems on the streets and for her workforce, leaving some people frightened: \u201cSeeing the disorder that\u2019s out on the streets, some of the narrative coming out around immigration status, colour of your skin, it must be really frightening out there, in our communities, but also for our own workforce.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I do think we\u2019re on a bit of a tipping point at this moment, and I think we need to work really hard not to go backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n The toughest challenge in her four years as chief was the July 2024 murder of three schoolgirls, Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, after a man burst into a Southport dance class and stabbed several children<\/a>.<\/p>\n