Met Police launches new initiative to advance Black PCs to ‘rebuild trust’

The Met Police has launched an anti-racist initiative to “rebuild trust” in black communities across London.

The force revealed black police officers are being given extra training to help them pass exams so they can be promoted to the ranks of sergeants and inspectors.

The workshops are part of a strategy by the force to become “truly anti-racist” and to try to win back the trust of London’s black communities.

The Met Police said they want to ensure its senior ranks properly reflect the diverse city it polices as not enough people from BAME communities have made their way up the ranks.

A new report revealing the strategy and a host of other measures to rebuild trust said: “Our Positive Steps Mentoring Network has supported 1500 ethnic minority officers and staff and has been recognised as best practice by the College of Policing…

“Positive Action workshops for Black officers have seen pass rates for promotion increase from 68% to 75%…

“(We will) work with the College of Policing to address, where possible, disparities in pass rates for promotion exams, in order to address underrepresentation at sergeant, inspector and more senior levels.”

Another measure to improve the policing of black communities is to teach all new officers about black history when they are taken on.

It comes following major frictions historically between the force and the capital’s black communities over alleged disproportionate use of stop and search and other tactics.

Two Met constables were sacked in October 2023 after a disciplinary panel found their actions during a “highly distressing” stop and search amounted to gross misconduct.

Trust in the force was also damaged after a 15-year-old black girl known as Child Q was strip-searched while on her period at her school in Hackney in 2020.

To help heal rifts, a new stop and search charter has been co-authored with black communities.

It re-sets how stop and search should be carried out in London, the Met said.

A force spokesperson said: “Improvements in how we record and monitor the ethnicity of drivers when making vehicle stops, with external scrutiny for greater transparency, are also coming as is an overhaul of our policy on intimate searches of children – increasing the threshold and oversight, ensuring they only occur when necessary and proportionate.

“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.”

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force was seeking to create “better promotion prospects for black officers.”

Dubbed A New Met for London; London Race Action Plan, the report said black officers will be “better supported for promotion and lateral development.”

A spokesperson said: “We know there is more to do, but this plan sets the right course to continue building a Met that our officers and public deserve.”

The report also states that the force trainers will “teach black history and culture at police recruit training school and ensure that cultural competency is part of the syllabus across a range of continuous development training”.

The force spokesperson added: “We’re also now training all new recruits so they understand the lived experience of black Londoners and other communities across the capital.”

Progress will be made publicly available via biannual updates.

Sir Mark 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.

“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.”