Talks with Northants Muslim leaders will build trust, say police
The "round table" in Wellingborough followed a similar event with black church leaders in March.Stone, the Labour PFCC, said: "I am on a mission to make communities safer and to improve the relationships between all our communities and our police and fire services."All of our local faith groups are very good at putting services in place that help and protect people, and they are hugely influential in their respective communities."Bringing us all together will help to forge a strong partnership," Stone added.The discussion included anti-social behaviour, drug use in town centres and increasing diversity in the police and fire services.
The Mosque representatives were also told about the PFCC's relaunched grant fund for community groups.Mr Balhatchet said: "We recognise that policing currently doesn't reflect the communities that we serve as much as it should. "Hopefully this meeting is the start of a process that will help to build better lines of communication."We want to reach a point where the Muslim community trust that their concerns are being dealt with, and that they see a force in which they feel truly represented. "I will do everything in my power to achieve that."
Inam Khan, chair of the Kettering Muslim Association, said the meeting was "useful in terms of helping to build the trust and confidence that we have in policing, and we hope that this can continue in the future."Alaa Abouzanad, chairman of Northamptonshire Council of Mosques, added: "This was the first time that all our Muslim leaders in Northamptonshire have met with the commissioner and chief constable. "We hope this is the first step in helping to improve the relationship we have with the police, so that together we can tackle problems in our communities."
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