Met criticised over race

Scotland Yard is today accused of discriminating against women and white officers in a devastating new report.

Police chiefs are so preoccupied with race - "like rabbits frozen in the headlights" - that real discrimination against women, gays, Christians and Jews is being overlooked.

The findings, by former union boss Sir Bill Morris, come at the end of his six-month inquiry into racism in the force.

The report warns that Scotland Yard faces a backlash from its white officers over political correctness. Sir Bill calls for root and branch reform of the force's disciplinary structure.

Senior policemen are so scared of being seen as racist that they refused to tackle black and Asian staff who are incompetent. The same standards of conduct were not being applied equally to all racial groups, according to the report.

Sir Bill says that while the Met's disciplinary procedures were outdated, the vogue for political correctness also meant that bosses over-reacted whenever an ethnic minority case was raised. And he says that problems start at Hendon training college, where officers begin their careers, and carry on until they retire. He says: "It's (diversity), not just a box to be ticked at a convenient point. We are concerned that the gateway to the Metropolitan Police Service, Hendon, needs to have a greater degree of supervision and scrutiny.

"A bad habit picked up at Hendon can go through the career of a police officer." Sir Bill calls for a raft of changes including:

The recommendation that a new post of Deputy Commissioner should be created will be seen as a direct criticism of Sir Ian Blair, the current No2 in the Met, who is set to become Commissioner in the new year.

Although Sir Bill's inquiry focused on London, he said his findings should apply the police forces nationwide.

His report paints a damning picture of the Met's approach to race.

On the one hand top officers and managers were preoccupied with not being seen as racist, at the lower level there was still a "canteen culture" where women, Christians, Muslims, Jews, the disabled, as well as those from ethnic minorities, suffered real discrimination.

In perhaps his most startling finding, Sir Bill said that recent efforts to tackle equal rights had been "counter-productive" and the force was now "seeing the beginnings of a backlash".

He said: "This would be catastrophic. The policy is right, it is the approach and application which we believe needs to be reviewed.

Sir Bill found that white managers "lack the confidence to manage black and ethnic minority officers without being affected by their race".

He added: "The statistics indicate clear disproportionality in the way black and ethnic minority officers are treated in relation to the management of their conduct. This represents a serious issue of discrimination which must be tackled as a matter of priority. The same high standards of conduct should apply to all officers and staff."

Even former Metropolitan Police Authority chairman Lord Harris agreed that the pendulum had swung too far on the issue.

"The rabbit is frozen in the headlamps and as a result there is an over compensation," he told the inquiry.

Sir Bill pointed out that the lenient treatment given to some black officers had caused a number of white officers to lodge claims of race discrimination.

He also discovered that efforts to tackle sexism had been neglected in recent years.

One key piece of evidence found that in large parts of the Met there was "an apparent willingness in parts of the MPS to condone or at the very least ignore sexist banter".