E/CN.4/1996/72/Add.4 page 19 81. In England and Wales, as at 28 February 1995, in all the police forces combined there were 2,113 officers belonging to ethnic minorities, or slightly over 1.7 per cent of the total strength of 127,369; 226 of those officers belonging to ethnic minorities were recruited in 1994, accounting for 4.2 per cent of the 5,357 officers recruited that year. 82. It is up to the police forces themselves to increase recruitment of ethnic minorities, but the Home Office has a role of encouragement to play and supervises the initiatives taken in this regard. The Home Office has adopted the following measures: (a) Her Majesty’s police inspectors continue to monitor carefully the steps taken by the various bodies to increase recruitment of ethnic minorities; (b) A personnel administrator under HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary coordinates police-community liaison efforts. His functions include advising the various bodies on issues to do with equal opportunity and the recruitment of officers from ethnic minorities; (c) Funds have been earmarked for certain police bodies to support particular local recruitment initiatives; (d) In November 1989, a circular on formulating and implementing equal opportunity policies was distributed to all the police forces of England and Wales. Two seminars were held for senior police officers dealing particularly with these issues, the first in April 1990 and the second in May 1991. 83. In April 1993, the Government introduced a package of performance indicators for the police service. One of these indicators requires police forces to gather information on the number of ethnic minority officers in the forces, compared to the size of the force and to the local ethnic minority population. Research has also been carried out into the success of various initiatives to recruit members of ethnic minorities. 84. One of the problems being faced by the police is the fact that some police officers from ethnic minorities give up their jobs after several years because they are the victims of racist harassment by their colleagues, or of discrimination in their careers. The Home Office and police services concerned are currently looking into this situation. 85. The police service has always been concerned to reduce the incidence of premature wastage and has developed systems of exit interviewing for leavers which is intended to identify and, if possible, rectify the causes of such wastage. One initiative that has been encouraged in order to improve the recruitment and retention of both ethnic minority and female officers has been the establishment of a support network for both ethnic minorities and female officers for both groups in many forces. 86. Forces use a variety of methods to attract ethnic minority applicants, e.g., advertising regularly on ethnic minority radio stations or in the ethnic minority press, police-community liaison groups to encourage members of ethnic minority groups to attend familiarization courses and open days that