West Mercia Police apologises for 'historic homophobic witch hunts'
They're the ninth force in the country to make such an apology
West Mercia’s Chief Constable, Alex Murray, has made a formal apology to the LGBT+ community, acknowledging past homophobic witch-hunts and discriminatory law enforcement.
In a letter to Peter Tatchell, Murray expressed regret for the harm caused by the often abusive way the police enforced historic anti-LGBT+ laws.
The Chief Constable said: “On behalf of West Mercia Police, I want to apologise for any historic misuse of the legislation and the detrimental impact this would have had on people’s lives and to their confidence in the police service.”
Murray is the ninth UK police chief to apologise, following similar apologies by the heads of the Metropolitan, City of London, Sussex, South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Avon & Somerset, Cambridgeshire and Nottinghamshire forces.
It’s apology is in response to the #ApologiseNow campaign initiated by the Peter Tatchell Foundation. The campaign was backed by comedian and TV presenter Paul O’Grady before his untimely passing.
Responding to the Peter Tatchell Foundation's appeal, Chief Constable Murray added:
“Attitudes and practices across our force are very different now and a huge amount of work has been done over the decades to improve the trust and confidence our LGBTQ+ communities have in West Mercia Police. This has also helped us to become a workforce that is more representative of the communities we serve than ever before.
“We are particularly proud of our positive day-to-day community engagement as well as at Pride events across the three counties and with specific groups, such as SAND in Shropshire and Telford. We have delivered learning packages to our workforce and our communities on the importance of tackling hate crime. Through this and our engagement we have seen an increase in reporting and in prosecutions for hate crime.
“We are working with our officers and staff to ensure that everyone feels empowered to challenge any discriminatory behaviour.”
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