Police race discrimination denial beyond belief

Over a twelve month period, that none of more than 240 complaints of racial discrimination faced by the Metropolitan Police Force have been upheld - beggars belief.

As Detective Sergeant Janet Hills, chair of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, has said, these figures are not credible.

She continued: “It is disappointing that the Met are not learning from previous lessons. It’s not good for community confidence.”

It is also totally unacceptable, given the continuing disquiet at stop and search, black injuries and deaths in custody and police shootings of black men, for the Met to say in response that "complaints were often due to a simple misunderstanding or poor communication.”

The figures, obtained using the Freedom of Information Act, show that of 245 complaints of racial discrimination that were concluded from March 2014 to February 2015, no action was taken in 240 cases. In the remaining five, the Met took ‘management action’.

We have to agree with the London Campaign Against Police and State Violence that this evidence “further underlines the perceived futility of complaining to a police force that, according to its own black officers association and commissioner, is still ‘institutionally racist’. The police cannot be trusted to investigate themselves.”

Interestingly, The Guardian reports that some Met chiefs wonder how the disproportionately white force can retain its legitimacy while using coercive powers to police a city with a growing BME population - only 11% of Met officers are from an ethnic minority, compared with 40% of Londoners.

Simon Woolley, OBV director, commented: “It’s almost impossible to build confidence between the police and BME communities when of 100’s of race complaint not one is upheld. People simply don’t make these complaints lightly, but rather because they have felt let down by police officers who should know better’.

“Only three months ago Home Secretary Theresa May gave a powerful speech in Brixton in which she emphasised the need for policing by consent, a coded warning to the Met to improve its performance in dealing with the BME community. We look with interest to see if her message has been understood, whilst continuing to work with aspects of the police, such as ‘Police Now’ a fast track recruitment scheme that embraces diversity, to turn these negative aspects around.”

The Met defended its record, insisting it had “a clear professional standards policy” and did “not tolerate discrimination in any form”. It said that it employed more than 30,000 officers and “public complaints alleging discrimination are made against only a very small proportion”.

Paul Hensby