Anti-black discrimination systemic in Met - report

The Metropolitan Police has a structural problem with "systematic racism", an independent report into anti-black harm within the force has warned.

The review looked at the Met's systems, leadership, governance and culture and concluded racial harm was "maintained through a repeated institutional sequence" within the force.

Report author Dr Shereen Daniels said racism and "anti-blackness" were systemic "institutional design" within the force.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force recognised the scale of the challenges and London's mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, said the pace of cultural reform had to speed up. The National Black Police Association said action to address issues had not been taken.

The review, commissioned from the consultancy HR Rewired, concluded that darker-skinned Met staff were "labelled confrontational" while lighter-skinned employees might receive quicker empathy and leniency.

Dr Shereen Daniels said that systemic racism was "not a matter of perception", adding that "true accountability begins with specificity".

"The same systems that sustain racial harm against black people also enable other forms of harm. Confronting this is not an act of exclusion but a necessary foundation for safety, fairness and justice for everyone," she said.

The report drew on more than 40 years of evidence showing how racism had shaped the Met's relationship with black communities and affected black officers and staff.

Within communities, this meant darker-skinned people were more likely to be read as suspicious or aggressive, and "force is more readily authorised", the report said.

It also highlighted the "adultification" of black children - where children are perceived as more adult-like and grown up - and said their vulnerability was downplayed and their actions were criminalised.

Baroness Lawrence said that discrimination "must be acknowledged, accepted and confronted in the Met", adding that racism was the reason why her son had been killed and why the police had "failed to find all of his killers".

She added: "The police must stop telling us that change is coming whilst we continue to suffer. That change must take place now."

Baroness Lawrence said racism "must be acknowledged, accepted and confronted in the Met"

Imran Khan KC, the Lawrence family's barrister, likewise said that the report's conclusions were "little surprise", adding that Sir Mark Rowley should resign if he did not "recognise, acknowledge and accept" its findings.

He added: "This report lays out in shocking clarity that the time for talking is over, that promises to change can no longer be believed or relied on."

The report is the latest to highlight racism within Britain's biggest police force, after Louise Casey's 2023 review - commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard - concluded that the Met was institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.

Reviews conducted decades ago have criticised discrimination within the Met - including the 1999 Macpherson report that called the force "institutionally racist" after the mishandling of Stephen Lawrence's case.

Earlier this year, secret BBC filming found serving Met Police officers calling for immigrants to be shot and revelling in the use of force.

Several officers have since been sacked, after Sir Mark Rowley pledged to be "ruthless" in getting rid of officers who are unfit to serve.

A spokesperson for Sir Sadiq Khan said the report's diagnosis was "stark".

"The mayor is clear that Sir Mark and his senior leadership need to reframe their approach to accelerate the pace of cultural reform and deliver the necessary structural change across the force," they said.

"There must be zero tolerance of all racism within the force and a lasting transformation in Met culture."

'Culture of denial'

The president of the National Black Police Association, Andy George, said Friday's report was the latest in a long line of reviews "which have highlighted the same issues again and again".

"There is a culture of denial, dismissal, of almost waiting for the spotlight to be on - and as soon as the spotlight goes, then it's business as normal," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday.

He criticised Sir Mark's response to the report: "He said the same things in Baroness Casey's review, he said the same things after Panorama… the words are fine, what we're not seeing is action to back that up."

Following the publication of the latest report, Sir Mark Rowley said: "London is a unique global city, and the Met will only truly deliver policing by consent when it is inclusive and anti-racist."

He added that the force would "go after the patterns of discrimination that show up in our operational work, and within the organisation by identifying and addressing their root causes".