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3 hours ago
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Discrimination against black people is "baked" into the leadership, culture and governance of the Metropolitan Police, an internal review has found.
The independently commissioned review, authored by Dr Shereen Daniels, surveyed 40 years of evidence of how racism had affected black communities, as well as black officers and staff.
Baroness Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, said that while the report was welcome, it "contains nothing I did not already know".
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the report as "powerful", adding that it "calls out that further systemic, structural, cultural change is needed".
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," Dr Daniels said.
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."
Imran Khan KC 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.
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."
