A police chief has scrapped a diversity guide that banned officers from using terms like 'blacklisted' and 'black sheep', declaring the public wants crime solved rather than "virtue signalling".
Jonathan Ash-Edwards, Hertfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner, ordered the removal of the nine-page document which was published last year by Bedfordshire Police and Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire constabularies.
Ash-Edwards said the guide would "damage public trust and confidence in policing."
The document had been created as a diversity, equality and inclusion reference guide for officers across the three forces.
Jonathan Ash-Edwards has ordered the removal of the document
Mid Sussex District Council
The document has been torn up by the PCC
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The guide instructed officers to use gender-neutral language, suggesting "pregnant person" instead of "pregnant women." It advised against using 'Christian-centric' language such as "faith."
The document defined gender as a 'social construct relating to behaviours and attributes', stating there is "a wider range of gender identities than just male and female."
Officers were also warned about concepts like racial microaggressions and "white fragility", which the guide defined as "a state in which some white people are unable to cope with or process the information they receive about racism."
The guide cautioned against stereotyping, such as describing older people as grumpy or women in their 50s as menopausal. Ash-Edwards, who took office last May, called for a return to "common sense when it comes to language."
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The UK’s first black Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Festus Akinbusoye called the document 'utterly mad'
Bedfordshire PCCAsh-Edwards told The Telegraph: "Asking police officers and staff to use terms such as 'pregnant people' is unlikely to be seen as 'inclusive' by many women."
He revealed that in his meetings with diverse communities, "many Asian residents are worried about family gold burglaries, our Jewish communities fear anti-Semitic hate crimes. What I have yet to hear is a call for more virtue signalling,
Hertfordshire Chief Constable Andy Prophet have now "commissioned a review of all such documents".
Festus Akinbusoye, the UK's first black Police and Crime Commissioner and former PCC for Bedfordshire Constabulary, branded the guidance "utterly mad".
Akinbusoye specifically questioned why the term "whitewashing" wasn't criticised while "blacklisted", "black sheep" and "black mark" were singled out.
James Esses, a psychotherapist and campaigner who shared screenshots of the guidance on X, criticised the document.
"I think it is utter madness that in all the years we have seen the harms that this woke ideology has done, that this being sent to police officers," he said.
In response to the controversy, the three police forces issued a joint statement. They explained the guide was intended to help officers identify difference in communities and to treat the public with respect.
