Dogwash

A "service" is being trialled in London allowing members of the Sikh "community" to request the involvement of a Sikh police officer in investigating crimes, particularly Sikh-on-Sikh crimes.

There is a obvious good sense in calling on specialist knowledge within the police force, and unless they are completely paralysed by their own political correctness-induced terror, one would expect the police to apply common sense in deploying such resources. But making it a formal victim-driven service strikes me as the top end of a slippery and inexorable slope.

The new service will not allow victims of crime to prevent a white officer taking on their case.

However, they can ask for a Sikh officer to be involved and, if required, be their contact with the police.

Yes, OK, but I wonder how long that restriction is going to last. How long will it be before each "community" is policed by its own, presumably with competing and partisan mixed teams of officers investigating "intercommunal crime"?

— White officer: Festus obviously did the mugging; he was caught with the White kid's mobile in his pocket.
— Black officer: Yeah, but he was provoked by the boy's disrespectful white-ness, man.

As I say, knowing when to use specialist knowledge effectively is an integral part of any profession, not just policing. But turning it into yet another documented customer right is, in this case at least, a dangerous move.

Ain't diversity wunnerful?