Commission to investigate racism in Met police

In a move that will rock the Metropolitan police service, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has today informed the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service (the Met) that it will carry out an investigation into unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation of employees by the Met.

This investigation is a response to longstanding concerns about the Met’s treatment of female and all BME officers, and follows the Central London Employment Tribunal’s recent findings in the case of Carol Howard v Metropolitan Police Service that the Met had discriminated against and victimised Ms Howard for her race and gender in contravention of the Equality Act 2010.

The focus of the investigation will be the Met’s Fairness at Work and misconduct procedures. It will be carried out under section 20 of the Equality Act 2006, which gives the Commission powers to investigate compliance with equality legislation when it suspects that an unlawful act may have been committed.

As the nation's equality regulator with powers to investigate discriminatory practises, many in the Black community will be relieved that the Commission is at last flexing its muscles on those institutions which seem to pay scant regard to Black peoples and opportunities. Early on this year the Home Secretary Thersea May stated the police forces up and down the country are in the last chance saloon in regards to their many illegal practices around ‘Stop and Search’.

In regards to the EHRC, Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Mark Hammond said:

The Commission was established to ensure compliance with the laws that protect everyone’s rights to fairness, dignity and respect. We look forward to helping the Met ensure that its workplace culture and practices inspire public confidence. “

We can only hope this is the beginning of seeing and hearing more of the ECHR confronting head on the issues of race discrimination.

Simon Woolley