BRADFORD Police Museum takes visitors through the fascinating history and heritage of policing and criminal justice, from the early 19th century onwards.
Located in the original police station in City Hall, it is home to a collection spanning 150 years of policing in the city, including uniforms, truncheons and radio equipment. There are ghost tours of the old cells and Victorian courtroom with candlelit tales of the likes of ‘Chains Charlie’, a notorious burglar said to haunt the site.
But, as museum director Dr Martin Baines points out, there is so much more to the history of Bradford policing.
Highlighted in a new exhibition at the museum is the evolving relationship between the police and minority ethnic communities in Bradford from 1974 to 2006. Diversity and Policing: A Shared History explores the work of Bradford police in areas such as community engagement and forced marriage - and how its pioneering initiatives went on to become national best practice.
The exhibition, which is at the museum for a year and will also be taken out to community venues, starts with the force re-structure in 1974, when Bradford City Police became West Yorkshire Police. Community constables were deployed on beats in local communities.
National Front marches led to small-scaled disturbances in Bradford then, in 1981, came the Toxteth and Brixton riots, and other disturbances nationwide. The subsequent Lord Scarman report identified failures in police community liaison, trust in the police and representation of ethnic minorities in the force. The recommendations led to community liaison officers - roles which PC Martin Baines and PC Anthony Thornton were appointed in September 1982.
Martin worked in Lidget Green and Horton Grange, developing initiatives such as community cricket matches and Grange Interlink Association. In 1986 the Inner City Initiative was launched - forerunner of today’s Neighbourhood Policing Team - led by Martin, Community and Race Relations Sergeant, who formed a team of 22 Community Constables across Bradford West. “For the first time, officers had their own patch but also worked as a team,” says Martin. “They went to mosques, Gurdwaras and the Hindu Cultural Centre, working on dialogue and engagement. The focus was on helping officers to police diverse communities. while building trust and confidence in the police. It was a very successful initiative.”
By the mid-1990s the 22-strong community policing team was no longer operating, due to policy and personnel changes, and when rioting took place in the city over two nights in 1995, the Bradford Commission report criticised police handling. The following year Martin was appointed the first police Community and Race Relations officer for the district. With a focus was on “engagement, consultation and dialogue”, he worked with Sunrise Radio on a series of 52 programmes, providing multi-lingual opportunities for discussion. Bradford Hate Crime Alliance was formed, which Martin still chairs, and the Minorities Police Liaison Committee, representing a cross section of faiths in the district. “The committee had a sub-group looking at forced marriage and support of victims, which led to the Home Office Forced Marriage Unit,” says Martin.
The exhibition also looks at how the police monitored tensions and worked with communities in the late 1990s and after the 2001 Manningham riots. And it reveals international links with Pakistan, Kashmir and India from 1999-2006, with a focus on personnel exchange, community policing, criminal intelligence and forced marriage.
Martin and other Bradford officers visited Pakistan, Kashmir and India, and discovered a police force in Kashmir run entirely by women. Some of the officers visited Bradford in 2000.
The exhibition includes profiles of key figures in Braford police, including Chief Constable Osman Khan, Rashid Awan who, in 1967, was the first police officer in the UK from a minority ethnic background, and Firzana Ahmed, who received the Queen’s Police Medal in 2019.
“This exhibition tells an important, previously untold, story of a formative period in Bradford policing,” says Martin, who in 2006 received a lifetime achievement award from Bradford Council for Mosques. “It shows how the police and communities worked together in Bradford, often in times of crisis and tension, to defuse tensions and build trust and confidence in the police. Much of this work went on to become national best practice.”
Adds Martin: “There is more to this museum than Victorian bobbies. It is relevant to people from minority communities and we want them to know that it’s their museum too. We’d like to build an oral history from people who are part of this story.”
Bradford’s Race Equality Network Secretary Chair Yusuf Karolia says: “We have been pleased to have been a partner with our friends at Bradford Police Museum to help present the groundbreaking work undertaken in the city on race and diversity. It is important that young people and newcomers to the city appreciate the hard work that has taken place in the district.”
The museum partnered with Bradford’s Race Equality Network on the exhibition, which has been funded by a grant from the Association of Independent Museums New Audiences New Stories fund on behalf of the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Visit bradfordpolicemuseum.com
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