Scotland Yard chief admits black officers worry about racism in the force — but refuses to apologise for 'vital' stop and search

Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House said the Met was working to address concerns that it sometimes targets people because of their skin colour
Sir Stephen’s comments follow the stop and search of athletes Bianca Williams and Ricardo dos Santos
Bianca Williams

Scotland Yard today said it would not apologise for using “vital” stop and search powers, despite admitting that some of its own black officers are worried about whether the force is racist.

Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House said the Met was working to address concerns that it sometimes targets people because of their skin colour.

He conceded some “black and minority colleagues are deeply worried about the organisation they work for” and whether it is racist, or whether they were being “seen as traitors to their heritage”.

Sir Stephen’s comments, in an article for the Standard, follow the stop and search of athletes Bianca Williams and Ricardo dos Santos. Their car was stopped and they were handcuffed in an alleged example of racial profiling.

The Met said it had “good grounds” for the search, during which nothing unlawful was found, because of the way the car was being driven.

Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has apologised to the couple for the distress caused by the incident, which the force has referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Sir Stephen said: “I have huge confidence that officers are using stop and search every day politely, professionally and entirely in accordance with their training. It cannot be the case that any officer should be discouraged from stopping and searching any individual with reasonable grounds because of a fear of criticism.”

He said that the force was “listening intently to the city’s black and minority ethnic communities, including more than 7,000 black and minority ethnic officers and staff inside the Met”, but added: “Stop and search is a vital tactic to reduce violence.

"This violence disproportionately affects young black men. Recent Government research tells us black men are four times more likely than average to be a victim of homicide and eight times more likely to be a suspect for homicide."

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