'Cultural bias' in test for top police officers

A policeman today claimed that a "culturally-biased" aptitude test - including a question about the cult TV cartoon series The Simpsons - was blighting black officers' hopes of promotion.

A policeman today claimed that a "culturally-biased" aptitude test - including a question about the cult TV cartoon series The Simpsons - was blighting black officers' hopes of promotion.

Superintendent Ali Dizaei told the first annual conference of the National Black Police Association that the tests, held for entry to ranks above superintendent, also discriminated against black candidates by including slogans from 1970s adverts promoting milk.

Mr Dizaei, who works for the Metropolitan Police in Kensington, Chelsea and Notting Hill, told NBPA colleagues at Birmingham's International Convention Centre that the tests were "destabilising" for ethnic officers.

Iranian-born Mr Dizaei, who has a PhD in Law, confessed that he had no idea as to the identity of Bart Simpson's mother while taking the General Information section of the Chief Officer Extended Interview and Assessment Course in Eastbourne last week.

He agreed the cartoon would be of interest mainly to white viewers.

And he said the milk adverts pre-dated his arrival in the UK.

The 37-year-old, who is vice-chair of the NBPA, added that similar barriers in the Accelerated Promotion Scheme for Graduates - known as "fast-tracking" - resulted in "ethnic cleansing" of senior police ranks.

"There has not been a single black officer on the fast track system for the last four years. Out of 102 applications by black officers only two reached interview and none were successful," Mr Dizaei told delegates.

The officer, who joined Thames Valley Police in 1986, said he was waiting to hear if he would pass exams enabling him to apply for a post above the rank of superintendent, joining a commander and a deputy assistant commissioner already serving with the Metropolitan force as the only black officers to do so.

Ambitious black officers are likely to hit a "chicken mesh" at which they are denied promotion, leaving them no choice but to ask the Police Federation for help, Mr Dizaei said.

He added: "They (ethnic minority officers) need a piece of the success cake and not the crumbs."

Addressing the issue of exams for senior officers, Mr Dizaei warned: "There were some really ridiculous questions like 'What is the name of Bart Simpson's mother?'

"The counter argument is that the test doesn't really count that much, but it does destabilise you for the other tests. This culturally-biased test should be given a decent but final burial."

The officer also claimed that a general interview forming part of the selection process for senior ranks, often conducted by retired British diplomats, further discriminated against ethnic minority candidates.

More than 2,000 black police officers and their civilian colleagues attended today's event, including leading figures in the criminal justice system and community representatives such as Neville Lawrence, father of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Delegates were told that Black Police Associations now exist in 22 of 43 police forces across the country.