Monday, 20 January 2014

Siobhain McDonagh, MP for Mitcham and Morden has recently spoke out against the cost of obtaining the Certificate in Knowledge of Policing, a mandatory requirement for anybody making an application to a police force.

She opposed it on the grounds that it may financially exclude applications from poorer backgrounds from making an application to the police in the first place, a prospect that will make the force unrecognisable from the community that it serves. In support of her plight, she recalled a time where she encoraged young people from her constitency to attend a police recruitment drive and found that many of them lost interest when upon learning of the qualification fee.

Ms McDonagh reiterated "Everyone agrees we need to have a police force that is more like the community it polices. We need more people from tough backgrounds, more people from ethnic minorities. In short, we need more people from places like Mitcham and Morden".

The petiton began by Ms McDonagh has received nearly 1,000 signatures, a week after the verdict of the death of Mark Duggan, which has subsequently raised questions of proportional representation in the police.

David Cameron has said that he will discuss the fee with the Home Secretary.