SUSSEX Chief Constable Paul Whitehouse today urged police and civilian staff to call a special hotline to his office to expose racists in the force.

He admitted: "There are one or two racists and they will not be tolerated."

His comments came on the day of the release of a damning report into the Metropolitan Police handling of the Stephen Lawrence murder.

It says the Met is "riven by pernicious and institutional racism."

Aminimal number of Sussex officers have been sacked in the past for racism and the chief is determined to banish any left.

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He said: "It's likely there are a small number of racist officers in Sussex and we are working to root them out."

The chief has a confidential hotline in his Lewes office which police and staff can use to pass on confidential complaints and information.

He urged anyone with evidence of racist behaviour to phone or to report the matter to the force's discipline and complaints department.

He said: "People must not stand by and allow incidents to go unchallenged."

Mr Whitehouse is one of the few chief constables to admit publicly that institutional racism exists in his force.

He defines it as "policies and practices which result in ethnic minorities being treated unfairly, often without intention".

He stressed the majority of the force's 4,000 employees were not racist but said a casual remark or act could be unintentionally offensive.

Sussex is one of the few forces to put all its workforce through two-day community awareness training on how certain words and actions could be offensive to minorities.

Mr Whitehouse said: "The vast majority of our officers work hard to deliver an excellent service but we have not always got it right in the past.

"We will continue to make mistakes but we will learn from them to make the service even better."

Mr Whitehouse caused resentment among some officers when he first admitted institutional racism existed in the force, but he said he will not take a neutral role on the issue.

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