A FEMALE police officer has told how she was asked “are you really gay?” at an event aimed at increasing the number of employees from the LGBTI community, who make up only around four per cent of Police Scotland’s total workforce.

Louise Beale, who heads up a unit representing officers from sexual minority groups, said she welcomed yesterday’s independent report which showed “racism, sexism and homophobia” is still a continuing issue as well as the force’s own acknowledgement that “challenges remain”. 

Former lord advocate Dame Elish Angiolini said she had been made aware of worrying evidence of discriminatory behaviour and attitudes within Police Scotland and said part of the problem was a machismo “canteen culture”.

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Ms Beale is overseeing a national recruitment drive next month, only the second of its kind, which aims to address an “under-representation” of officers from the LGBTI community and in which officers will share their own experiences with potential recruits.

Previous research has indicated that officers within sexual minority groups can feel they have more to prove as “crime fighters”.

Ms Beale  attributes a “lack of role models” in the LGBTI community within the force for some of the questions she has been asked at a previous recruitment drive.

Senior police officers say it is up to members of the force if they wish to disclose their sexuality, but concede that a more open approach might attract a wider diversity of applicants.

In the report, Dame Angiolini said she was also “deeply concerned” to hear of discrimination experienced by female police officers and staff and said there was a need for an independent “fundamental review” of equality matters to maintain public confidence in the force.

No new figures are available, but Police Scotland estimates round 4-5% of officers identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex. 

Numbers have gone up among officers – from 542 to 568 in 12 months, according to the most recent snapshot from March 2019. Among police staff it is also up, increasing from 133 to 158.

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Police Scotland was the first force in the UK to launch a dedicated recruitment event last year. The second will be held on December 3 and online due to Covid restrictions.

Ms Beale said she had also been asked at a previous recruitment event whether she had experienced any discrimination related to her sexuality from the public when she was on duty.

When asked by The Herald, she declined to share any personal accounts or whether she believes male officers are more likely than females to face discriminatory attitudes.

She said: “We welcome Dame Elish Angiolini’s report and know Police Scotland will consider the recommendations. Progress has been made and we welcome that Police Scotland acknowledge challenges remain.

“Since the report was commissioned we have been organising events to support LGBTI officers, as well as working with Police Scotland to host recruitment events.

These events give potential recruits an opportunity to speak to serving LGBTI officers and ultimately look to build better representation within the police.”

The force has also come under pressure to boost representation for women and less invisible minorities, including people with disabilities or people whose heritage is not Scottish or other British. 

Only 1% of Police Scotland officers are black or minority ethnic (BME), well out of kilter with a national average of 4% and numbers are rising very slowly – from 245 in March 2018 to 254 a year later.

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However senior officers insist that Police Scotland is an organisation that ‘treats everyone fairly”.

The force has a special unit, called the Positive Action Team or PAT, based at the old Strathclyde Police training centre at Jackton in South Lanarkshire, which aims to boost numbers of under-represented minorities.

Superintendent Simon Wright, who heads up the team, said: “Having been within Police Scotland and Strathclyde Police before that for 25 years...the police force I joined is completely different to where we are at now. We are modern, we are forward-looking and we are absolutely open.

“It’s really difficult to compare police forces of the past to a modern day police service. There are no comparisons to be made.

“There is quite a proportion of people who don’t disclose their sexuality and there will be a variety of reasons for that. What I can say is that we are more open.

“We are not doing this event because we think there is a lack of LGBTI officers. We have events that are focused on women and ethnic minorities. We are doing them because we want that diversity of talent.

“What we don’t want is to lose someone who is really talented but who is worried about how they will be treated. Do we have an organisation that treats everyone fairly? That, we do have.”

However, he acknowledged that some might still consider the archetypal white male police officer is still the norm.

“You can never rule out a perception,” said Supt Wright. “What we can absolutely say is that we are in a vastly different landscape.

"It it possible we made mistakes in the past, well absolutely. But what we are really good at doing is learning from that.”