It’s the culture war topic that has dragged the top brass at Cumbria police into a wokery row.
Should top cops at Carleton Hall be rolling out a rainbow-decorated patrol car to support and engage Cumbria’s LGBTQ+ community?
Mark Jenkinson MP, prospective Conservative candidate for Penrith and Solway, blasted it as a woke gimmick and this week the full retaliation from Michelle Skeer, Cumbria’s first ever female chief constable, has been revealed in a letter passed to the Herald.
For those playing catch-up, a serving Cumbrian inspector told a gender-critical policing group on Twitter last month that its cost-cutting hierarchy are splashing money on a primary-coloured panda, claiming anyone who dares question it faces the sack.
Mr Jenkinson, Tory MP for Workington, duly fired off a two-sided letter to Ms Skeer on House of Commons-headed paper, branding the day-glo motor a waste of public money which risked alienating the public.
Calling for hard evidence that a paintjob would make any tangible difference to LGBTQ+ groups reporting hate crime, Mr Jenkinson asked if such special cars exist in support of other groups such as BAME people, women, men, Christians or Jewish people.
The public, he said, wants safer streets — not police chiefs telegraphing their woke credentials — with faith in the police at an all-time low.
Mr Jenkinson also suggested when it comes to cars, it might be better ensuring its existing fleet was safe, citing the death on duty of PC Nicholas Dumphreys, 47, whose faulty BMW squad car careered out of control on the M6 as he responded to an incident in 2020.
Just heard from an Inspector from @Cumbriapolice Despite being required to save millions, senior management has just given approval to a new Rainbow car. Regular cops are dismayed… but are too afraid to speak out as it’s a sacking offence. pic.twitter.com/7Uhr7JLfP8
— WeAreFairCop (@WeAreFairCop) February 21, 2023
Last Friday — nine days after Mr Jenkinson’s original complaint landed — Ms Skeer hit back with a letter of her own, but considerably more diplomatic.
The police declined to share it with the Herald, but we obtained a copy. It was openly made available on the police Intranet system for Bobbies or Bobettes to see.
Breaking the two-page barrier, Ms Skeer made a lengthy and spirited defence of the LGBT+ branding and said there was lots of internal support for it on a single car.
The police have around 320.
Highlights from the letter included: “This is not sanctimonious nor political…The additional detail to this car will cost £247, this is not excessive in terms of the work we are doing to engage and show support to the LGBT+ community, internally and externally.”
She also reminded Mr Jenkinson of the need to encourage LGBT+ victims of hate crime to come forward as incidents are “under reported” and the police have a job to build trust with this community, she wrote.
She also spoke of Cumbria having a 43 per cent ratio of serving female police officers – the best nationally in “gender parity”.
“I do not agree at all that trying to reach out positively to a diverse community is exclusive. This is about being inclusive and ensuring that we represent all strands of diversity and all sections of our communities,” she wrote. “I am not apologising for championing diversity.”
Encouraging Mr Jenkinson not to reply, she also said she was disappointed by his inappropriate” reference to PC Dumphreys.
A spokesman for Mr Jenkinson said Ms Skeer had failed to address the substantive questions he had asked in his letter.
Moving on, the mystery LGBT+ car is not yet operational, police confirmed. They did not have an image of it to share with the Herald.
However, the Cumbria police Twitter account has actively intervened on social media to deny photographic representations were its car.
Other top Conservatives are keeping their heads down, presumably hoping the row disappears, rather like a rainbow.
The office of Neil Hudson, Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border, failed to respond to a Herald request for comment.
Peter McCall, Conservative police and crime commissioner, who was copied into both letters, has declared the matter an operational decision which lies with the chief constable, according to his spokesman.
