Police are bidding for £4.5 million of Home Office cash to boost the number of bobbies on the beat in West Yorkshire.

Home Secretary Jack Straw has set up a Crime Fighting Fund to recruit 5,000 front-line police officers nationally before 2003.

West Yorkshire Police has tabled a bid for 180 recruits spread over three years and will hear at the beginning of February if it has been successful.

As well as boosting the number of officers on its books, the cash would help the force meet the Home Office ethnic minority recruitment target of nine per cent.

Latest figures show West Yorkshire Police currently employs 5,065 police officers and support staff, of which around 134 (2.6 per cent) are from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The force received 4,000 applications for 60 new vacancies when it decided to end its two-year recruitment freeze last September.

And police in Bradford have a database of more than 100 potential recruits from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Councillor Gillian Whitfield (Lab, Clayton) one of the district's representatives on the West Yorkshire Police Authority, today welcomed the £4.5million bid.

"More police officers on the beat is a subject which comes up repeatedly at police community forums across the district,'' she said.

"People want visible policing because it makes them feel safer. If the bid is successful we will be able to build on the good work already taking place.

"It will also help with ethnic minority recruitment targets - which are a top priority."

Chief Constable Graham Moore told the Telegraph & Argus: "The force is facing difficult budget pressures now and in the future and we are keen to secure a good settlement from the fund.

"It will help us to put additional officers on the front line and help reduce crime."

Mr Straw will announce which bids have been successful on February 4.

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