Dorset Police apologises over racism complaints

Dorset Police have apologised after receiving complaints about racism about one of their posts on social media.

Weymouth and Portland Police have offered their sincere apologies after an image designed by the Home Office was used on their social media page.

The post was about victims of County Lines drug gangs, and featured a photo of a young black man.

But campaign group Stand Up to Racism Dorset complained to the force. They say it wasn't clear if he was being shown to be a victim or a criminal.

Mary Mullett of SUTR said:

"The image encouraged the very kind of divisive racism that the police should be working to eradicate”.

She demanded that it should be removed immediately from social media and there should be a full public apology from the police to Dorset’s Black communities and to all who oppose racism.

Deputy Chief Constable Scott Chilton said:

“Dorset Police remains committed to safeguarding vulnerable people whilst tackling the criminals who exploit others for their own personal gain bringing suffering and harm to our local communities. We will continue to promote a victim focused approach to reducing the impact of county lines on young lives and part of that is the need to raise awareness of county line exploitation among the public.

“Sometimes we use national campaign materials to do this. The image in question was taken from a poster designed and shared by the Home Office. This social media graphic was one of several used for a historic county lines campaign featuring young people from different backgrounds. Each of these images featured victims of county lines exploitation – not offenders.

“Criminal gangs do not discriminate; they target anyone and everyone they believe they can exploit. It is important that we all recognise the harm that is caused to all communities by this criminal behaviour. Any vulnerable young person (or vulnerable adult) from any background could be a victim of exploitation by county lines gangs and we are committed to protecting all vulnerable people from the harm.

“With regard to the social media graphic itself, we continually review both our communication materials and our ways of engaging with all our communities to alert them to the dangers of county lines and enable us to safeguard the victims. Dorset Police apologises to those who felt offended by the use of this particular image and we will always endeavour to take feedback on any of our campaign materials on board.”

The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset has said that it was “disappointed” to see the use of the image and is working with the Dorset force to improve its record on Stop and Search.

Mary Mullet added:

“We hope never again to see such an inappropriate image circulated by Dorset Police."