TRAINEE police officers have met a transgender campaigner as part of a special training week designed to help them understand the issues of minority communities.

New recruits gathered at Bury police headquarters for a talk by Dawn Pomfret, deputy coordinator for TransForum, a discussion group and peer support forum for transgender people.

It was part of an ‘engagement week’ to provide trainee PCs with the chance to meet a number of community and faith groups, as well as learn more about the boroughs’ policing priorities.

Greater Manchester Police chief constable Ian Hopkins also attended the event and commented that officers in Bury are already excellent at engaging with the community, working with Bury Council and engaging with the LGBT community at events such as the Pride march planned for April this year.

“Having Dawn here to talk to the young recruits is a great opportunity for them to understand more the issues specific to the transgender community,” he said.

“Policing has changed a lot since 1989 when I started as a new recruit — it is worlds apart.

“Society has moved on and it is very promising to see policing is moving with it.”

Ms Pomfret has been giving talks, raising awareness, to various groups of police officers in the North West over the last three months.

She said: “GMP are very good at dealing with the transgender community, and other minority groups, which is great, but there’s always more that could be done.

“My role is to come here and talk to the local police force about local people, and we are members of the local community like anyone else.

“The trans community is full of real human beings like myself.”

She said she did not want make out she was special, but hoped that, if young officers understood her experience and the difficulties she faced, they would be able to better understand the needs of the trans community as a whole.

Luke Gregory, aged 23, a police recruit three weeks into his training, said: “Policing in general is very diverse and it is important to learn about different communities.

“These sessions are very beneficial because they show how to be more open, tolerant and understanding and treat people according to their needs.”

Sue Hargreaves, student development and training coordinator for Bury police said including the engagement events in the early stages of trainees’ development means all later training will be undertaken with community issues in mind.

“These recruits are going to be policing their local communities so it is very important they understand them,” she said.

“By having guest speakers like Dawn, officers will increase their empathy and understanding of transgender people and the issues they face.”