Met Police overhaul plan disappointing, think tank says

A racial justice think tank has called the £366m plan to overhaul the Met Police "wholly disappointing".

The Runnymede Trust and other organisations wrote an open letter to Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley about the plan, which was announced last week.

The trust said "very little feels new" about the scheme, while the letter called on the force to address "the issue of institutional racism head on".

The force said it was "determined to make the Met anti-racist".

The overhaul follows Baroness Louise Casey's review in March, which found that the force was racist, misogynist and homophobic.

The planned overhaul, called a New Met for London, was launched last week.

It included an increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing in a bid to rebuild public trust, moving 240 officers from central to local teams, and using terrorist-style tactics to catch the 100 worst predators targeting women in London.

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The letter, co-ordinated by the Runnymede Trust and signed by groups and individuals including Inquest, Stopwatch, the Black Equity Organisation and Lord Woolley, called for "a more comprehensive plan".

They said while they "welcome efforts to acknowledge and address recent and historic failures of the Met, including how harmfully black and minority ethnic Londoners are policed", they found it "regrettable that you have persisted in offering an apology to our communities without accepting (Baroness) Casey's core finding that the Metropolitan Police Service is institutionally racist".

Following the Casey report, Sir Mark said he would not use the term "institutional" and told reporters he needed to use language "that's unambiguous and is apolitical".

The £366m plan places an emphasis on neighbourhood policing, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley says

In their letter, the groups said the Met had missed an opportunity "to signal that it intends to do things differently, and acknowledge where the wrongdoing is rooted".

They added that refusing to use the "institutionally racist" phrase "highlights the disconnect with the levels of hurt, anger and intergenerational trauma felt by our communities, and black and minority ethnic Met officers".

Dr Shabna Begum, interim co-chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, said the plan does not "set out how the Met can be held accountable in any defined way".

"This plan is wholly disappointing, very little feels new, even less feels like a concrete plan, and all our communities in London deserve better."

She called for "sustained investment" in community-based solutions that tackle "the root causes of crime".

'We must transform the organisation'

A spokesperson for the Met said the overhaul plan had been informed by 10,000 interactions with Londoners, staff and partners.

"We're determined to make the Met anti-racist, and indeed anti-discrimination in any form," the spokesperson said.

"We must transform the organisation, its systems, processes and culture, to achieve this. We must bring Londoners into the heart of the way the Met is run. Without building new and honest relationships with those we serve, and developing an organisation which truly reflects what the public want, trust will never be restored."

The spokesperson added that the force welcomed the prospect of further engagement with the Runnymede Trust.

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