🟣 Met Police review finds ‘racism baked into’ systems and culture
A landmark internal review has concluded that anti-Black racism is embedded throughout the Metropolitan Police’s leadership, systems, and culture, describing discrimination as “baked into the institutional design” of the force.
The report — titled 30 Patterns of Harm: A Structural Review of Systemic Racism Within the London Metropolitan Police Service — was conducted by consultancy HR Rewired, led by Shereen Daniels, and found that darker-skinned officers were routinely labelled “confrontational”, while lighter-skinned staff were shown “greater empathy and leniency”.
The findings come amid decades of similar criticisms, including the Macpherson report (1999) into the Stephen Lawrence case and Baroness Louise Casey’s 2023 review, both of which concluded the Met was “institutionally racist”.
Ms Daniels said:
> “Systemic racism is not a matter of perception. For almost 50 years, reviews of the Met have documented the harm experienced by Black Londoners, officers and staff.”
She added that “anti-Blackness is the clearest indicator of organisational dysfunction,” and that confronting it was “a necessary foundation for safety, fairness and justice for everyone.”
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley called the report “powerful” and said further “systemic, structural, and cultural change is needed.”
> “London is a unique global city, and the Met will only truly deliver policing by consent when it is inclusive and anti-racist,” he said, pointing to initiatives like New Met for London and the London Race Action Plan as part of ongoing reform.
Baroness Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen was murdered in 1993, welcomed the report but said it revealed “nothing I did not already know.”
> “Racism was the reason why Stephen was killed and the reason why the police failed to find all his killers,” she said. “The police must stop telling us that change is coming whilst we continue to suffer. That change must take place now.”
The Met said it “welcomes the report in full” and recognised the “scale of the challenges” it faces as it seeks to rebuild public trust — particularly among Black communities, whose confidence in the force remains significantly lower than average despite recent improvements.
Met Police review finds ‘racism baked into’ systems and culture
