Met Police chief Cressida Dick calls for change to allow force to favour ethnic minority recruits
‘Positive discrimination is illegal for a reason’ Priti Patel slams Met Police chief Cressida Dick as she calls for law change to favour ethnic minority candidates over white applicants
- Cressida Dick hopes the move will help officers gain the confidence of minorities
- Some 20,000 police officers need to be recruited across the UK by 2023
- Out of 7,800 complaints of racism against the Met 181 resulted in formal action
- Dame Cressida wants legislation to allow force to recruit more black officers
Metropolitan Police chief Dame Cressida Dick has sparked fury after lobbying the Government for a law change to allow positive discrimination in recruitment – but Priti Patel has slammed the plea.
Dame Cressida wants the force to be able to favour ethnic minority candidates over equally qualified white candidates.
She is calling for the change after emphasising police forces must reflect the communities they serve.
But a Home Office source said: ‘It’s fair to say positive discrimination is illegal for a reason.’ They pointed out the Home Secretary had clashed with Met assistant commissioner Neil Basu previously on the issue.
The source stressed ‘lawful positive action’ could be taken but there is ‘no need for positive discrimination to increase the diversity of the police’.
Dame Cressida’s lobbying has provoked outrage among Tory MPs who branded the move ‘discrimination against white people’ and called on her to focus on recruiting ‘the best person for the job.’
The Met is currently made up of 18 per cent black and ethnic minority officers, but is aiming to increase this to 40 per cent – the same proportion of black and ethnic minorities in London.
Dame Cressida’s push towards positive discrimination, reported by The Times, has been pushed forward by Mr Basu, a vocal supporter of the force’s need for diversity, but it has sparked anger elsewhere.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith described the proposal as ‘degrading’, as he demanded those from ethnic communities be treated ‘the same as everybody else’.
Tory MP Bob Blackman told MailOnline positive discrimination was ‘completely wrong’ and the police should recruit the ‘best person for the job’.
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said he is ‘more interested in officers who can enforce the law rather than meeting a quota’.
Cressida Dick (pictured) hopes positive discrimination will help officers gain the confidence of the ethnically diverse community they serve
Mr Bridgen added: ‘It’s discriminatory the other way. I’m very much of the opinion you have to have policemen who want the job. One volunteer is worth 10 pressed men as they say.
‘The whole thing is ridiculous. It’s not realistic and ultimately it’s policing by consent in this country, the force should reflect the society it is policing.’
He accused Dame Cressida of ‘heading off into dangerous territory’ and added: ‘She should make sure the Met Police is attractive to people from all parts of the community and ensure there is no racism in the force.’
Mr Blackman said people ‘from all walks of life’ should be encouraged to apply for roles.
He said: ‘You employ the best person for the job, and you encourage people from all walks of life to come forward.
‘But to then say you are going to positively discriminate for one set of people over another, you are saying to those people you are inferior. I regard that as an insult to people of different minority communities.’
‘It is demeaning. It says you are not good enough to get there on your own merits.’
He said the Met needed to encourage people from different communities but suggested that positive discrimination would ‘breed resentment’ among colleagues.
Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘Don’t you want to get the best? It is a bit degrading really to be told the only way you get very good people from ethnic backgrounds is by accepting lower standards.
‘I have met lots and lots of people in the police of a very high standard from ethnic communities. They want to be treated the same as everybody else.
‘They have a target to get higher ethnic participation – that is great. But the way to do that is to go out and convince people from school onwards that having a career in the police is a good thing to do.’
He said he was not sure exactly what kind of positive discrimination Dame Cressida had in mind. ‘If the police want to change they have to start earlier than just opening up this debate,’ he added.
The director of a consultancy firm which helps companies improve diversity told MailOnline it was ‘the wrong move’.
Police detain a man during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Hyde Park, London, on June 12 last year
He said more needs to be done to tackle the ‘root cause’ of a lack of confidence with black and ethnic minorities towards officers.
They added: ‘It would be sensible to focus on the root causes of institutional racism and the culture of the Met and the lack of confidence as opposed to legislation.
‘I think quotas are a sticking plaster and aren’t getting to the root cause. If the Government wants to amend the Equality Act it doesn’t change perceptions of equality within the force once officers have started working there.’
They warned the Met Police’s plan to bulk its number of black and ethnic minority officers could be seen as ‘lowering the bar’.
They said: ‘Cressida Dick is missing the point. What she needs to focus on is why ethnic minorities aren’t applying. Obviously there is an issue of trust around the culture of the Met.’
Out of 7,800 complaints of racism against UK police forces – including some that referred to multiple officers – only 181 resulted in formal action, reported the I newspaper.
Data from 38 out of 45 police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland showed just 5,555 out of 7,837 complaints were subject to further investigation, with no data shared for the remaining 2,282 complaints.
It comes in the wake of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, when thousands of people descended on Britain’s cities to campaign for equality following George Floyd’s murder by police office Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. Pictured, a protest in Whitehall on June 7, 2020
Some 20,000 officers will be recruited in England and Wales by 2023 and the Met Police alone wants to bring 11,000 more employees into various job roles between now and 2025.
It comes as London’s crime rate rises dramatically. Killings involving a blade in the capital increased from 67 in 2018 to 86 in 2019 – a rise of 28 per cent in 12 months.
Out of 20,000, just 9,000 officers have so far been recruited into roles in the UK. Of these, 10.6 per cent are from black and ethnic minorities.
Dame Cressida now wants more legal scope to allow the force to choose black and ethnic minority applicants over their white peers.
At the start of the year she revealed there were currently 32,300 officers in the Met and 1,300 more will be recruited this year. Some 3,000 are joining the force – but this includes those replacing officers who have left.
Laws currently in place already allow the force to favour black and ethnic minority applicants for individual roles – it is only larger recruitment drives that would be affected by the proposed changes.
Written evidence to the HASC committee, outlining the Met’s position, read: ‘We have in place a substantial programme of work to encourage and support colleagues from under-represented groups, such as career development services and leadership development, so they are as well-equipped and as well-supported as possible in progressing their careers.
‘In our most recent Chief Inspector promotion process for example, the eligible pool was 1,028 officers, 22 per cent female, 9 per cent Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. At the conclusion of the process, 162 officers were selected, 27 per cent female and 15 per cent Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic.’
Previous attempts to improve diversity have already failed with a considerable drop in candidates from black and ethnic minority backgrounds applying and then passing a competency-based questionnaire during a 2013 recruitment drive.
Morgan Lobb, CEO at Vercida, a consultant firm used by Met Police, told MailOnline: ‘We agree in principle but it would be good if the Met police continued the work they are doing to identify the issues that are limiting the amount of diverse applicants for positions at the Met.’
There is ‘entrenched racial bias in UK policing’, according to Habib Kadin, research and policy manager at StopWatch, a charity campaigning for fair and effective policing. Meanwhile, Niamh Eastwood, the executive director of drug law group Release, said the complaint system was ‘totally broken’ with a ‘severe lack of accountability’.
Choosing recruits based on their ethnic background is not favoured by the Government, according to The Times.
Dame Cressida stressed the quality of candidates would still be high, with recruits measured against strict standards set by the College of Policing – but ethnic minority candidates will be favoured where their qualities and skills match that of a white applicant.
It comes in the wake of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, when thousands of people descended on Britain’s cities to campaign for equality following George Floyd’s murder by police office Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis.
