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10 years after Macpherson, the Met is still short of blacks and Asians in senior jobs
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent18.02.09
THE Metropolitan Police has the same number of senior black and ethnic minority officers as it did 10 years ago when it was accused of institutional racism over the investigation into the Stephen Lawrence murder, it was claimed today.
A new inquiry into allegations of racism in the force will today hear fresh claims over failures to promote ethnic minority officers to senior ranks.
Serving and former police officers are to be questioned over claims of a "golden circle" of white officers and a culture of racism which prevents the promotion of ethnic minorities.
One black police leader will say that the Met has fewer black officers in senior ranks than it did 10 years ago at the time of the Macpherson report. Alfred John, chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, said that in the past two years more than three-quarters of all the Met's senior ethnic minority officers and civilian staff had launched race discrimination actions against the force. His claims will go before the Race and Faith Inquiry, which will hold the first of a series of one-day hearings today.
The Metropolitan Police Authority study will hear evidence from a succession of senior black officers who have accused the Met of racism.
This morning former assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur was due to give evidence in private. He accepted a £300,000 settlement from the Met last year after he accused former Commissioner Sir Ian Blair of discrimination when he was sidelined from his post as head of Olympic security.
Mr John, whose group has called for a recruitment boycott of the Met, accused the force of failing to learn the lessons of the Lawrence report. He said: "The Met has made improvements but it is still window dressing because we are still dealing with the same cases year on year. For instance, last year there were no promotions of visible ethnic minority officers from the inspector rank to chief inspector rank; this year there have been just two."
He said the Met was showing the same pattern of behaviour that it had always done. "As soon as you mention race they run a mile or go into denial," he added. "In the past few years around 85per cent of their senior officers or managers have filed race claims against the Met. That shows there is a problem. I do not believe that it is always to do with racism, sometimes it is just sheer incompetence."
However, the Met said it was working hard to increase the number of ethnic minority officers across all ranks.
A spokeswoman said the number of black and ethnic minority sergeants had increased from 66 in 1998 to 259 last year and the number of inspectors from 15 to 71 over the same period. She said one in five of all new recruits are from a "minority background" but it would take time for them to reach senior ranks.
She added: "We have established positive action initiatives aimed at developing our brightest and best black and minority ethnic staff and officers to reach their full potential and we are confident that over the next few years senior ranks will be more representative of black and minority ethnic officers."
The inquiry, which will be chaired by Metropolitan Police Authority member Cindy Butts, will also hear evidence from Sir Ian Blair, and the Met's only two remaining senior Asian officers, Ali Dizaei and Shabir Hussein.
This week the Runnymede Trust said police still needed to make progress "notably in relation to the career experiences of black and minority ethnic officers and the disproportionate use of stop and search procedures against black groups. It is difficult, in light of these continued challenges, to argue that the charge of institutional racism no longer applies."
Reader views (31)
Surely they should be hiring crime fighters!? Right now we have already too many of these fake Communist Supporters Officers.
- Peteo, London, NW1
At what stage does the liberal elite admit they are wrong to undermine the police like this. Trying to force them to take in every colour that doesn't want to join and then force promotion to justify targets set. This is a meritocracy and the Government is running Job Reservation fot minorities, the corner stone of Apartheid. In other words Jobs reserved for different minority groups other than the Anglo Saxon majority. It is unnaceptable.
- Peter, Camberley UK
Quotas ARE wrong - they mean that you are recruiting not because of the quality of the recruit but to fill a slot, often with a reduction in the ability of those recruited just to make up the numbers.
The worst part about quotas? It is the devaluation of the worth of those many ethnic minority recruits that ARE worth their job. It is also racist in and of itself, in that it is saying that ethnic minorities aren't expected to be of the same quality as Caucasian recruits.
- Rogan, Irving
We have seen already what happens when you promote people for the colour of their skin not their ability to do the job. The vast majority do not care what colour the copper is they just want them to get on with nicking the bad guys. In a country where the majority of people are white it stands to reason the majority of people in a given profession are white.
- Duncan Walker, Lucky to live in Thailand
would you promote someone to be a surgeon because of his race or because he could do the job. What would you want waiting to go under the knife. Give the job to the person who can do it best.
- Rosie-Cayman Islands, Cayman Islands
The situation is quite easily explained . . .
All officers are promoted on passing the relevant exams and ability.
If the ethnic officers are not up to the job then they should not be promoted.
As usual, the liberal whingers are calling for people to be promoted via so called "positive discrimination" . . . which, like all discrimination, is disgustingly WRONG!!
- Eoin Mcgreeghan, Derry, NI
we wonder why?
an expensive research project will eventually discover
the obvious. filling quotas is merely tokenism, a salute
to the politically correct. unless the whole process is
transparant and equality is not just a word to be bandied
about without the substance of actual and merited
achievement for all regardless of colour and creed the
paper ambition is fatally flawed.
- M.O'Brien, london.uk
We need officers that can engage with the communities and if that means we need more Black, Asian, Eastern European, police officers then that is what we need.
It isnt about filing a quota, it is about why that quota exists.
Stuart,
You are disgusting, how offensive to suggest that white officers cannot deal with non whites/british.
Do you think there shouls be british police in dubai and spain where there are large british populations.
No I bet you dont
- Daisy Willett - Clarke, Kensington, London
The McPherson people failed totally because they failed to see that MERIT is the important part of making a career for yourself in any business, policing included.
Right now there are polish and jamaican and indian and whatever head of housekeepers in hotels and accountants and shop owners, and they worked their way up!
Instead they chose to push for ethnic minorities, merits unregarded.
If you look closer at the numbers, the percent of "minorities" in the met are more or less that of the country as a whole. Like: how many black mayors are there? How many jamaican Lord Justices? How many Immigrant anything?
You just can't take one borough in London and say " In Belize Park there are mostly violet human beings, therefore we must promote violet people as a whole within the Met disregarding the fact that violet raced people are a rare sight in Buckinghamshire".
What they also missed completely seems to be the fact that we are all human beings, and colour should not be an issue. Making it such an issue has done more harm than good in the course of years.
You just should NOT promote people ( or demote for that matter) on race and colour alone. WRONG WRONG WRONG. And to say that anyone or anything is racist just because one individual claims it is, is just WRONG.
- Juma, london, uk
Stuart, UK- crap! It is the job of politicians to "engage" with communities and the job of Police to nick villains.
The sooner they are absolved of the requirement to be social workers and allowed to get on with the job of catching crooks, the better.
ALL positions should be filled on merit, not to satisfy politically-correct social engineering targets.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
What is truly despicable is not the fact that there are more caucasian individuals serving in high places (it is Britain after all), but the fact that these individuals- along with white people in general, are made to feel guilty for their achievements.
- F. Wood, British Columbia, Canada
We have totally missed the point with the comments here, me included.
We need officers that can engage with the communities and if that means we need more Black, Asian, Eastern European, police officers then that is what we need.
It isnt about filing a quota, it is about why that quota exists.
- Stuart, UK
If you have a police force of say 95% White Officers and 5% Ethnic officers of course it's going to seem like all the top officers are white, you can't have all top ethnic officers from the 5% group, the maths doesn't add up, and also regardless of ethnicity, you have to earn promotion. Positive discrimination only breeds contempt so everyone should climb the same ladder to the top, regardless of origins.
- Ros, London UK
Maybe Blacks and Asians just dont want to be coppers, has any body thought of that?
- Nick Nack Paddy Mac, Kiburn, London UK
Some groups and individuals will never be satisfied until all the middle and senior police ranks are occupied by ethnic officers.
- Paul, South London
I recently retired after 30 years in the Mets. During this time I saw a considerable increase in the number of ethnic Officers recruited. Many were first class policemen who I was proud to serve alongside. Others were lazy and carried big racial chips on their shoulders. They tended to end up in cushy recruitment and diversity jobs where they never saw an angry man on the streets.
I also worked under and alongside ethnic senior Officers. Like many whites they had been promoted far above their ability and that includes some who have recently hit the headlines.
The Black Police Association has been nothing but divisive in the Mets. and should never have been allowed, given funding and time away from the streets to run its organisation.
Stop all these P.C. enquiries and allow the new Commisssioner to get on with his job. That is what Londoners want.
- Charles, Stanmore. London
There are plenty of PCSO's who are black or Asian.
- Ted, London
85% of ethnic minority officers have filed race claims!! This is totally staggering, and explains why the situation is a farce! It is yet another taxpayer funded gravy train for false accusations that send the Police Lawyers running for the hills in fear, and lead to ludicrous 'name your price' out of court settlements!!
- Gary, amersham
1) You can't force people to be policemen/women.(Blacks/Asians et al)
2) You should not stop people who want to become policemen/women (White people), subject to their ability to meet the standards, just to meet 'targets'
At least you may then have a police force that has some enthusiam for what is supposed to be doing, protecting us. (Even if they are currently slavishly chained to a target driven desk culture. This must change)
I don't care what colour or background a policeman is, as long as he earns the respect from joe public, sadly lacking at present, and he respects me.
We are a long way from a respected/respectful police force in this country, and with Big brother giving them ever more 'power' are moving in the wrong direction.
- Peepsy, England
I find the misuse of “racism” interesting in these reports. Most “black” officers are British. Therefore the issue is “colour prejudice”. Asian officers may also be British and quite often the prejudice is religious bigotry and intolerance not racism.
- Bj, London
I hope there is no suggestion of "positive discrimination" here as any discrimination in allowing people of a certain race to get jobs based on skin colour is wrong. In this sense the Met has been totally racist against WHITE applicants trying to join as they prefer ethnic minorities allegedly. People should be recruited and promoted on merit not on skin colour.
- Richard K, Nottingham
Yes, we do need more ethnic coppers - but for the right reasons, such as our ability to understand and liaise with the various communities involved.
What we don't need is the PC and liberal do-gooders telling us we need more ethnic coppers just because they are black, brown or sky-blue pink !
- Kathy Doyle, London
Sadly some of the police who represented the minorities in the 80s and 90s were game players who used the racist card whenever necessary. They got lovely placements in research or in the training establishments They did a disservice to the hard working and honest police who came from minorities and who suffered from the backlash as a result.
- Terry, Hennebont , France
The Runnymede Trust report was more negative than constructive and did more to create divisions and tensions. This is exacerbated by the highly racist and divisive Met Black Police Assoc. What if the white officers had their own Assoc? The liberal PC do-gooders' continue to disrupt management and the Met as a whole without consideration of the real problems facing every member of the force and the needs of the public.
- Ralph, London, England
Get on with policing not playing politics.
- Teddy, Islington, London
The biggest source of employment discrimination in Britain is not race it's age. And it affects every group.
- Mike Newland, London, England
It is very easy to see the why these initial comments have been made, but if it was that easy it would have been fixed by now.
- Stuart, UK
This is getting boring now. Can't they just focus on the rising crime rates and go out on the streets and do their jobs for a change. I have lost all confidence in our police service and articles like this just make me annoyed. What does it matter what colour skin a policeman has as long as he is fit to do the job we are paying him to do.
- Lisa, London
"In the past few years around 85 per cent of their senior officers or managers have filed race claims against the Met. That shows there is a problem." No. What it shows is that you can supplement your income by launching a race discrimination claim.
- Anthony, London, W2
Perhaps the force promotes those most suitable for the job, and that so far these have proved to be white people. Has no one thought of that?
- Carl, Norwich, England
What has it got to do with black or white as to how good you are at your job,?
- David,Chertsey, Chertsey.UK.
