LANCASHIRE Police have given their backing to a national recruitment drive to get younger applicants and more people from ethnic minorities interested in a police career.

The £7 million campaign, which was launched by the Home office yesterday (August 30), is an attempt to recruit an extra 9,000 officers from England and Wales, which means a boost of 226 officers for Lancashire. It is aimed at people aged 23-33, but in particular at women and people from ethnic minorities.

PC Keith Little, community and race relations officer for Lancashire Police, said it was their aim to increase the percentage of people from ethnic minorities over the next five years.

He said: "We have set a target so that by 2010 we have five per cent of the workforce made up of people from ethnic minorities. The figure currently stands at around 1.3 per cent." He also said the police force needed to reflect the make-up of society in terms of race, gender and sexuality, adding that the next campaign will be to attract more lesbian and gay men.

And more police officers can only be a good thing for the people of Blackpool.

The Citizen has received many letters complaining about the resort after we launched our "No Sleaze Please" campaign, and a common feeling from our readers is that a stronger police presence would help to combat bad behaviour.

Sgt David Barnes from Blackpool Police supported the campaign when he said: "By recruiting more officers it will enhance our ability to provide stronger community policing and also give us the ability to continue with our philosophy of problem-orientated policing.

"It is a worthwhile profession being able to provide a service to the community by fighting crime and Blackpool police would welcome applicants from all walks of life which would then represent a cross section of our community."