The new London Race Action Plan sets out how the Met will “better represent, respect, involve and protect black Londoners”
A London Assembly member has said that the Metropolitan Police’s new action plan for tackling racism within the force “fails” to go far enough.
The ‘London Race Action Plan‘ was launched yesterday (Monday 23rd) and 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”.
The Met has admitted that “over many years” it “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”.
It adds that its progress on delivering the plan will be made publicly available via biannual updates.
But the Green Party’s London Assembly member Zoë Garbett has said that the plan fails to go far enough. She said: “I want to express my respect for the efforts of the many Londoners who contributed to the development of this new policy.
“However, I am deeply concerned that it has taken the Met almost two years to take a stand against racism after Baroness Casey’s initial report. Additionally, I fear that this new plan fails to address the most important demands of Londoners.
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“The data is clear. Londoners do not want safer strip-searching policies for children: they want to prohibit strip-searching of all children.
“Overcoming the entrenched racism in the Met will require much more than just a shiny press release.”
Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley 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.”
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