EXCLUSIVE: Two police forces are slammed for using ACTORS in ’embarrassing’ diversity recruitment campaign

• Essex and Hampshire Police launched ‘We Value Difference’ diversity recruitment campaigns 
• However, instead of using real police officers, they used actors for the studio in Colchester, Essex
• One of the actors Victoria Hinds, who appears next to a gay pride flag in the campaign, is straight and married
• She posted photos backstage with one captioned: ‘I scrub up pretty good as a copper, what d’ya reckon?’
• A Hampshire Police Federation spokesman said they were ‘saddened’ that the force had chosen not to use real officers to demonstrate its diversity
• An Essex Police spokesman defended using actors saying that officers are ‘busy on patrol catching criminals and delivering justice for victims of crime’.

Two police forces have been criticised for mounting an ’embarrassing’ diversity recruitment campaign which resorted to hiring actors to pose as ethnic minority and gay officers.

A series of posters released by Hampshire and Essex Police features black and ethnic minority ‘officers’ alongside the proud slogan, ‘We Value Difference’.

But the only difference in the photos of the actors used by the two constabularies is the cap badges which have been swapped using photo trickery to distinguish them.

One actress, Victoria Hinds, who appears as a police officer next to a gay pride flag in the campaign is not only not in the police in real life, she’s straight and married.

Essex Police has been criticised for using actors to pose as officers for its recruitment drive 

Hampshire Police used the same actors for its bid to recruit officers from diverse backgrounds 

Actress Victoria Hinds (pictured) who starred in the campaign, posted this photo of her dressed as an officer with the caption, ‘I scrub up pretty good as a copper, what d’ya reckon?’ 

Ms Hinds, who studied drama at university and has appeared in a number of corporate films, posted behind-the-scenes snaps from the photoshoot on Instagram.

Explaining that she is in the ‘Essex/Hampshire Police Diversity and Inclusion Campaign,’ she adds: ‘I scrub up pretty good as a copper, what d’ya reckon?!’

Essex Police defended the use of actors, saying real officers are ‘busy on patrol catching criminals and delivering justice for victims of crime.’ 

Ms Hinds, who studied drama at university, posted a number of snaps of her backstage 

Last night Kevin Maxwell, a black and gay former Met detective who wrote about suffering racial and homophobic abuse from other officers in his memoir, Forced Out, described the campaign as ’embarrassing’.

He said: ‘Instead of using pictures of smiley faced actors pretending to be police officers, greater effort should be made to change the culture within, to ensure that black officers don’t become disillusioned.’

Another ‘officer’ who appears in both the Essex and Hampshire adverts is Akil Largie, who describes himself as an ‘actor, model, influencer, singer, TV presenter’.

Garry Smith, secretary of Hampshire Police Federation, said: ‘Policing should reflect the communities we serve and any campaign to encourage people of all backgrounds to consider being a police officer has to be welcomed. Policing is a challenging and rewarding career where every day is different.

‘Hampshire Police Federation is saddened we couldn’t use serving police officers from our diverse force to showcase how great it is to be a police officer – and that the work had to fall to actors. 

Ms Hinds was one of a number of actors who took part in the force’s ‘We Value Difference’ campaign. She took to Instagram afterwards to share some photos from the day 

‘The view of Hampshire Police Federation is that our fantastic colleagues are in the best position to advertise how brilliant it is to be a police officer – how we keep people safe and the fantastic job satisfaction of locking up criminals – and that we can do that much better than paid, scripted actors.’ 

The photoshoot was held at a commercial studio in Colchester which boasts ‘an award winning team of photographers, videographers, retouchers and production specialists’.

It took place amid pressure on police forces across the country to be more representative of the communities they serve. Home Office data shows only 25 officers at chief inspector level and above describe themselves as black or ‘black British’ and no force is led by a chief constable from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background.

Launching the ‘We Value Difference’ recruitment campaign Essex Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said: ‘We genuinely value differences between different people and communities at Essex Police – whether that’s your age, your ethnicity or your life experience.’

The posters and a 40-second video featuring the same actors form the centrepiece of the recruitment drive. But both Essex and Hampshire stress they do use serving BAME officers for other elements of the campaign.

The use of actors in the campaign is described as ’embarrassing’ by Kevin Maxwell, a black and gay ex-Met detective who wrote about getting racial and homophobic abuse from colleagues  

Garry Smith, secretary of Hampshire Police Federation, said the federation is ‘saddened’ that the force couldn’t have used real officers to demonstrate diversity within Hampshire Police

Hampshire Police said it ‘paid Essex Police £20,000 towards the costs incurred by their team on the project’, adding: ‘[We] didn’t hire the actors but did support their use. The hiring was done by Essex Police.’

Explaining why it chose not to use its own officers, a spokeswoman said: ‘When creating content on time sensitive projects there is a risk of the right to use images of individuals being withdrawn… and there are sometimes operational reasons for not being able to use their image. Using actors in content helps mitigate the time and cost risk.’

Essex Police said: ‘We are proud that more and more men and women from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds are joining Essex Police. Sometimes we use actors in images because police officers are busy on patrol catching criminals and delivering justice for victims of crime.’ 

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