Racial harm against Black Londoners is ‘institutionally defended’ within the Metropolitan Police, according to an internal review. It concludes that discrimination is embedded so deeply in the force’s system and leadership that harm has become ‘inevitable’.
The report, 30 Patterns of Harm, uses more than 40 years of internal evidence to show how the Met’s structure and culture perpetuate anti-Black outcomes while protecting itself from reform. Black people are more likely than white people to be subjected to force and coercive tactics by the police.
Commissioned by the Met but conducted independently, the review assesses the force’s London Race Action Plan. It focuses on systemic problems rather than individual scandals. ‘Anti-Black outcomes in policing are not random. They have been built in’, the author Shereen Daniels writes. ‘The question is no longer whether the Met can say the words, but whether it can change the cultural, leadership and operational conditions that make those words true’.
Daniels calls for greater precision in police accountability, highlighting that broad terms such as ‘ethnic minorities’ or ‘diversity’ overlook the groups most harmed, and states that ‘Anti-Blackness is the clearest indicator of organisational dysfunction’.
Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, describes the report as ‘powerful’, and acknowledges that ‘further systemic, structural, cultural change is needed’. He says the Met will work alongside education, housing, and health sectors ‘to tackle inequalities that intersect with policing’ and cites ongoing initiatives, including ‘A New Met for London’ and the London Race Action Plan.
Campaigners say the review confirms longstanding concerns. The National Black Police Association (NBPA) expresses that ‘instead of progress, we have seen the situation grow worse’ since Baroness Casey’s 2023 review had already revealed the ongoing abuse. The NBPA argues that the London Race Action Plan ‘is not fit for purpose’ and should be scrapped and re-started’ to address the problems identified by Daniels.
The Met has faced repeated scrutiny concerning discrimination. The 1999 McPherson Report found it to be ‘institutionally racist’ following its mishandling of Stephen Lawrence’s case. More recently, a BBC investigation exposed Met Police officers at Charing Cross Police Station, calling for immigrants to be shot, leading to the dismissal of several staff.
Baroness Lawrence urges the police to ‘stop telling us that change is coming whilst we continue to suffer. That change must take place now.’
A spokesperson for London Mayor Sadiq Khan agrees that systemic issues ‘have not been tackled’, and Rowley needs to ‘reframe [the Met’s] approach to accelerate the pace of cultural reform’.
