Met has launched the London Race Action Plan, committing to the next steps in becoming an anti-racist police service. The plan has been co-created with Black officers, staff, and communities, and more than 2,200 Londoners have been consulted to improve the service’s culture, training and leadership, all form part of the Met’s commitment to strengthening trust among Black Londoners and its own workforce.
This includes a new stop and search charter co-authored with Black communities. This re-sets how stop and search should be carried out in London. The plan involves improvements in how the UK police record and monitor the ethnicity of drivers when making vehicle stops, with external scrutiny for greater transparency. The plan also seeks an overhaul of our policy on intimate searches of children – increasing the threshold and oversight, ensuring they only occur when necessary and proportionate and to better represent the communities “we serve we’re working hard to recruit and retain a more diverse workforce that brings all the talents, experiences and perspectives of London to policing.”
“We’re also now training all new recruits so they understand the lived experience of Black Londoners and other communities across the capital. We’ve committed to rooting out disparities in the Met’s misconduct system and have introduced focused workshops to improve promotion rates. As a result, since 2021 promotion pass rates for Black officers has increased from 68% to 75%,” added the Met Police.
The London Race Action Plan outlines the next steps in the Met’s mission to become an anti-racist organisation and a service that is more inclusive, diverse and representative of London.
It sets out across four pillars how the Met will better represent, respect, involve and protect Black Londoners. Over many years, the Met admitted, it had let Black communities down, and although steps “have been taken in the right direction, there remains a long way to go” to be an inclusive and anti-racist organisation.
The UK police said the four pillars of the plan would be delivered through “tangible action” across London, co-designed by the communities.
Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said: “This plan publicly sets out our next steps towards becoming a truly anti-racist and inclusive organisation. Black Londoners have been let down by the Met over many years and while we continue to take steps in the right direction, there remains a long way to go and there is a lot more work to do.”
Rowley added, “Action not words will rebuild trust in our service, so we must now remain focused on delivering real change that is seen and felt by our communities and our workforce. We are changing our systems, our processes, culture and our leadership. We are better understanding and acting on disproportionality wherever it exists. We are working more closely than ever with communities we’ve let down to build a service that delivers for all of London.
“To achieve this critical change once and for all will take time, but I am determined that we will continue to strengthen our relationship with Black Londoners – whether that be members of the public or our own colleagues – and renew the principle of policing by consent.”
