GREATER Manchester Police is still blighted by institutionalised racism, Chief Constable David Wilmot admitted today.

Exactly a year since he set up Operation Catalyst to combat the problem, he accepted the battle was still not won. And the number of ethnic officers within the force has increased by only five over the last 12 months.

But Mr Wilmot revealed that significant steps have been taken to eradicate racism within GMP and to detect race crime. People arrested for race and hate crime will now be included - like murderers and rapists - in the DNA sampling programme.

And crime scene examiners, used primarily to gather forensic evidence after major crimes, will also be deployed at racist incidents. GMP has also employed a full-time race advisor, Dr Brian Holland, a former member of the Commission for Racial Equality.

The Chief Constable revealed that in the last 12 months, one male police officer has been sacked for racism. Two others were acquitted at court and are back on duty. Mr Wilmot said the use of DNA testing in race crimes indicated the serious view GMP took of such offences.

He said: "The attitude we have taken is that it is a very serious crime. I said that we would use every means possible and that is exactly what we are using. Race crime is a very serious condition to be subject to and it is very expensive in terms of human emotion and the degradation it does to human life."

The Chief Constable was speaking to invited members of the community at the police training centre at Hough End, Manchester. He told them that the setting up a racial crime unit in Oldham was a response to a unique problem in the town, which has recently seen Asian attacks on whites outnumber those by whites on Asians.

This problem would be tackled with "exactly the same vigour and integrity as we tackle any race crime," he declared.

A year ago, when he launched Operation Catalyst as a response to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, Mr Wilmot announced: "I will do everything in my power to carry through what needs to be done to limit and eradicate racism within GMP." But today he repeated those exact words, admitting the problem was still there.

"It would be wrong to suggest that everything in the garden is rosy," he said. "There have been incidents and events over the last 12 months that have tested our resolve."

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