POLICE bosses today admitted they can never wipe out racism in Lancashire Constabulary.

But they pledged to do everything possible to combat bigoted behaviour in the police service in the light of the report into the murder of black London teenager Stephen Lawrence.

And they welcomed the Macpherson Inquiry report's recommendations aimed at revolutionising police relations within the community and stamping out racism throughout society.

Mike Tonge, Acting Assistant Chief Constable said: "We will never completely root out that small number of people who are bigoted against others, either on the grounds of race or gender or any other 'difference'. We cannot police the thoughts of our staff, but we must police their behaviour and, where it falls short of acceptable standards, we take action and will continue to do so.

"We will not tolerate conscious, intentional racism and we are not afraid to use the weight of the law or our disciplinary procedures to challenge it."

Mr Tonge said the force was already committed to equality of opportunity and fair treatment for everyone, but the tragic circumstances of the Lawrence case had prompted it to look even more closely at the way it dealt with minority groups in Lancashire. He added: "What we find is that we are still far from perfect, although Lancashire Constabulary has come a very long way already.

"Some of our policies and practices have been with us for a long time and it is only as we have looked at them afresh over the past couple of years that we have recognised the need to change them so that we can be confident they will be transparently fair to everyone.

"That process is continuing and we support the spirit of the Macpherson Report in calling for the continued reform of any outdated and discriminatory practices."

Mr Tonge said the force also supported the Home Secretary's plan for more training for police staff.

Lancashire's Chief Constable Pauline Clare wants to see more recruiting of members of the ethnic minorities into police jobs, both as officers and in administrative and specialist support roles.

At the moment the Lancashire force has only 39 black or Asian police officers. At last December's Police Authority meeting, the Constabulary unveiled plans to raise the number to at least 91 by 2001 and to 146 by 2009.

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