'We can't keep black recruits'

Scotland Yard today made an unprecedented admission that it has serious problems recruiting and keeping black and Asian officers.

In a major internal inquiry into race issues in its own ranks, it found a series of problems were holding back ethnic-minority officers from the moment they apply to join - and warned that some elite units are seen as whites-only.

The high-profile investigation found evidence that disproportionatenumbers of ethnic-minority officers quit the force without completing their probation and said some new recruits find the training college at Hendon "isolating".

It also revealed that the Met is in breach of a standard set by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) by failing proportionally more black and Asian than white applicants trying to join the force.

The report - to be published in full within weeks - calls for all police trainees to pass a compulsory anti-racism test before being allowed to go on the beat.

It was ordered by Commissioner Sir John Stevens after undercover BBC reporter Mark Daly uncovered appalling racism at a police training college where one recruit donned a white hood and others referred to "Pakis". But the inquiry team lead by assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, the Yard's most senior ethnic-minority officer, found no evidence of racism on the scale unearthed in the Secret Policeman documentary.

Today Mr Ghaffur said the report presented a " comprehensive" picture of the challenges facing the 30,000-strong force - but said much had already been done to improve the Met's record on race.

"Challenges remain and I am not going to hide that fact," he said. "From where I am sitting I passionately still believe that the Met has made huge progress."

But he warned: "These are specific areas where we have got to start thinking."

The report criticises the Met on a string of issues:

Serious flaws in officer selection, with ethnic-minority success rates less than 80 per cent of those for whites - in breach of a CRE rule.

Grave concern" over retaining ethnic-minority officers - three times more likely than whites to leave in the first two years.

Not enough black and Asian officers joining elite specialist units such as firearms and drugs - some seen as "no-go" areas. Just 1.5 per cent of firearms officers are from ethnic minorities, compared to 6.9 per cent of officers on the beat.

Black and Asian officers between

1.5 and two times more likely to become subject to internal investigation and written warnings.

Mr Ghaffur makes far-reaching proposals to improve recruitment and retention. They include a major shake-up which could see applicants given extra credit for second and third languages, a move away from the regimented residential training system currently in place at Hendon, and a change in the disciplinary procedure so that low-level complaints may be dealt with informally.

He will lobby the Home Office to change national entry test standards to make it less likely that

ethnic-minority recruits will fail, and is to urge senior officers to become "emotionally attached" to diversity.

He also said consideration should be given to recruiting officers from abroad to plug shortages from particular ethnic groups, particularly from the Chinese community.

But he called for extra measures to weed out racists in the training process, including a diversity awareness test which would have to be passed before a trainee qualifies as a probationer.

Applicants for the police could be subject to "more intrusive" testing of their views on race, including visits to their homes, while he also called for trainees at Hendon to be stripped of the rank of constable, which makes it far more difficult for them to be quickly kicked off the course if they are found to be racists.