An ethnic minority candidate who failed her interview was given a job following an intervention by senior officers in West Yorkshire Police.
The female officer was rejected at first but was later offered a position after her case was taken up by the force's chief officer team, which includes Chief Constable John Robins.
To accommodate her failure, West Yorkshire Police then scrapped interviews for officers transferring to the force, reports The Telegraph.
One email reveals the candidate was allowed to join before pre-employment checks were completed on orders from the chief officer team.
West Yorkshire Police
WikiCommonsThe interview notes show the female candidate scored one E, four Ds and one C on her answers to the six set questions. Sources inside the force said officers generally needed As and Bs to secure a job.
An E indicates "no answer given or answer irrelevant", whilst a D represents "some good points but below an acceptable level".
The interviewer wrote that the candidate "seemed to have prepared answers which they ultimately attempted to force into the interview questions."
Despite these concerns, the interviewer did praise her "manner", describing it as "excellent."
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West Yorkshire Police Headquarters in BradfordGoogle MapsA month after the interview, West Yorkshire Police rewrote its policy to eliminate interviews for transferees. The force decided to no longer ask questions about "competency" – known as the CVF, short for competency and values framework.
In an email sent on October 17, 2022, Chief Inspector Jonathan Aldred from the HR department wrote: "Basically, we are removing the CVF measure from the application and as such, all who apply will be onboarded and there is no interview."
He added that pre-employment checks would remain the "only criteria which a candidate can fail on."
In a second email that same day, Chief Inspector Aldred directed that "every effort is to be made" to get the female officer on the next available induction course.
A policy document seen by The Telegraph shows the force realised that by scrapping interviews, it could hire more ethnic minority staff.
Analysis of 236 transfer applications over 34 months found a disproportionate number of ethnic minority officers had been rejected – 26 per cent compared to just 7.7 per cent of white candidates.
An insider said: "West Yorkshire Police have lost the plot in becoming obsessed by race. It can't be right that officers who failed interviews were then given jobs."
A source said the force had become "obsessed by race"PAIn a statement, a spokesman for the force said: "A report was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) relating to the transfer of a serving officer to West Yorkshire Police.
"The IOPC deemed this did not meet their threshold for investigation, and the matter was passed to West Yorkshire Police’s professional standards directorate for local investigation in November 2023.
"This claim has been thoroughly investigated, and no evidence has been found to support allegations that this applicant had been given favourable treatment.
"Our interview requirement for transferees was removed in October 2022. Due to this being a change in policy, it required involvement and agreement from senior officers in the organisation. The change was communicated to a total of 14 officers who had previously expressed an interest in joining the organisation in that calendar year."
