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Mike Fuller enters police racism row

Michael Fuller
Michael Fuller

Black and ethnic minority officers need to work twice as hard as their white counterparts.

That’s what Kent's Chief Constable Mike Fuller will say on a special edition of the BBC’s Panorama tonight.

Chief Constable Fuller has been a police officer since 1975, when he started work with the Met.

He became the first black Chief Constable when he took the helm of Kent Police in 2004.

On tonight's programmme - The Secret Policeman Returns - Mr Fuller will say that throughout his career he had to make sure he was on top of all his training to make sure he could compete alongside his white colleagues.

He tells the programme: "I've certainly had to ensure I'm qualified both in terms of academic qualifications but also in terms of experience as well."

He says in the programme that black and ethnic minority officers find it hard to break into specialist teams and, “don’t feel that there is a level playing field.”

"What black and minority ethnic officers find is it is difficult to get put forward for selection and that I think some of the specialisms you'll find will be quite clubby.

"If you're not a member of the club or you don't know how to get into the club, then you can find yourself excluded."

However Mr Fuller does admit that there have been other officers throughout his time in the force that have flagged up racism towards him, and he sees that as proof some officers want it stamped out.


Panorama: The Secret Policeman Returns will be on BBC One tonight at 8:30pm.

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