The police force has been hit by a series of high-profile claims of racism within its ranks in recent years along with accusations of incompetence and Islamaphobia. However the accomplished new divisional commander for the newly formed Kirklees division insists his vision is to provide genuine leadership for all.

Chief Superintendent Barry South told AWAAZ “I want to provide leadership that means that my staff know exactly what they are doing, know where their supposed to be doing it, when they are doing it, and are acting with integrity. If you’ve got someone working in a particular area, Saville Town, Dewsbury Moor or anywhere else, they have to take pride in what happens and deal with it in a proper manner.”

When asked about the general perception of the relationship between the Asian community and the police force, Mr South said “A lot of work has been done in terms of establishing proper communication with hard to reach groups and the Asian community. A number of key people in the Asian community now have a good understanding of what policing is about, they have a voice in that they are entitled to express their concerns and opinions on the way policing is being delivered on a local basis. We have seen some great examples, I had one individual, who has turned up at a police station with a suspect for a very serious assault on the back of us contacting him, and he is a member of the ethnic minority liaison group.

“What that shows to me is that there is actually a trust there, he trusts the police enough to deal with that individual. We have to be as with any other public service, open to constructive feedback and criticism at times. What I don’t want to see is individuals tarring the police service with the same brush. Some people are very quick to criticise on an odd failing, we never see them coming forward when we do really well. The work that we do with the Kirklees Race Equality Council gives us an opportunity at times to sit as a member of a really positive group, rather than it being seen as police led. The work that Jamil Akhtar does, for me is absolutely pivotal to make sure that all organisations bind to improving the environment and Kirklees for everyone including ethnic minorities and hard to reach groups.”

Mr South, who holds a BA (Hons) in Organisation Studies and an executive MBA from Leeds Business School, began his career 20 years ago as a constable on patrol in Dewsbury and Mirfield. In 1998 he was promoted to the position of Chief Inspector working in Criminal Justice Support, whilst heading a £3.5 million project in order to develop initiatives to refine the criminal justice system in West Yorkshire. In March 2004, Mr South succeeded John Holt as the new Divisional Commander for the Huddersfield Division. In April 2005 he took up the post of Divisional Commander for the Kirklees Division.

Mr South is attempting to introduce a young people’s advisory group that would enable young people across Kirklees to engage in dialogue with the police. He commented “I have re-employed Steve Bedford, a race hate co coordinator who retired recently, as a consultant on diversity. Steve is going to be pushing for youth involvement, in determining the way forward and you will see how a young people’s advisory group will develop, which is about a group of young people sitting down with me and saying “This is not what you’re doing right, this is what we want you to do, and then put an action plan together to move forward.”

Mr South insists the police force could play a part in providing youth programmes for Asian youth, “We are currently trawling all youth programmes that are going on within Kirklees at the moment; I also want to find out where they are, who is actually driving them and what the outcomes are, as what we have at the moment is 4 or 5 agencies all working in isolation instead of working as a team. There is a responsibility on local councilors, and some of the funding organisations to make this happen.”

Mr South asks should there be specific targets with regards to recruiting people from minority community’s?, “There is a lot of positive work going on across the police service, the big difficulty is the issue around should be have specific targets?, because the right people will join the organisation, if I come across anyone that’s interested then they will get 100 percent support. A lot of good work is going on, in terms of getting out into key places to try and recruit, but there is no one coming up with a full proof way of doing it, why or are people just skeptical of joining the Police service?, with a lot of people it’s not what they want to do.”

Judging by what Mr South had to say, do people share his vision? It is a question of trust for the people of Kirklees and Barry South is determined to attain it.

Photo shows Chief Superintendent Barry South