'I just got on with it' – Inspirational story of one of the first black officers at West Midlands Police
As one of only a handful of black police officers in the West Midlands 50 years ago, a time when racism riddled society, Kirk Dawes suffered while wearing blue serge.
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Either institutionalised or incendiary, it was near ever present.
Within the force, Kirk encountered intolerance and ignorance.
Within his community there were those who considered his decision to join West Midlands Police an act of treachery. He had entered into a pact with the enemy.
“In the black community at that time there was a lack of trust and confidence in the police,” Kirk said. “And there was this black guy joining the other side.
“On both sides I experienced discrimination. You can’t win and just have to do the job. The reality was that there was good and bad in the police service and it was the same in the black community. Even back then, the bad were only a few.”
Kirk, in his own words, “got on with it”. The detective constable defied the bigots to forge a stellar 27 year career that saw him advise senior politicians and the National Ballistic Intelligence Service and help re-shape relationships between police and ethnic groups.
He tackled the cancer of organised crime, became chairman of the Black and Asian Police Association and, in 2004, received the Queen’s Police Medal from Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace. In 1988 he was introduced to Princess Diana when she visited Bournville Lane Police Station.
That CV is testament to the man’s stubborn refusal to submit to racism. “I’ve had a charmed life,” Kirk shrugged modestly.
Now 66 and a grandfather to five, Kirk is not burdened by bitterness about his time on the front line. He rationalises about the reasons, he stresses attitudes have changed within the police force, but there is still much to be done. The stain of racism has not been scrubbed clean. Improvements are needed in terms of “representation and progression”.
When he “joined up” in 1976 – answering an ad that had been placed in the Express & Star and Shropshire Star, Kirk had already become immune to the pain of prejudice. He wasn’t naïve enough to expect an easy ride.
It was the dark days of the 1970s when law-abiding citizens belly-laughed at the racist dialogue of sitcom Love Thy Neighbour and housewives tapped their toes to the Black and White Minstrel Show.
“I started at Willenhall and that was my first experience of racist attitudes,” Kirk said. “At training school I was called ‘sambo’ and treated a bit differently. There were 108 people there and I was the only black person.”
He had already faced much, much worse.
