Met announces next steps to rebuild trust with Black Londoners

• Met launches London Race Action Plan, committing to the next steps in becoming an anti-racist police service
• The plan has been co-created with Black officers, staff and communities - with more than 2,200 Londoners consulted.
• Improvements to the service’s culture, training and leadership all form part of the Met’s commitment to strengthening trust among Black Londoners and its own workforce.
• A new stop and search charter which has been co-authored with Black communities. This re-sets how stop and search should be carried out in London.
• Improvements in how we record and monitor the ethnicity of drivers when making vehicle stops, with external scrutiny for greater transparency.
• An overhaul of our policy on intimate searches of children – increasing the threshold and oversight, ensuring they only occur when necessary and proportionate.
• To better represent the communities we serve we’re working hard to recruit and retain a more diverse workforce that brings all the talents, experiences and perspectives of London to policing.
• We’re also now training all new recruits so they understand the lived experience of Black Londoners and other communities across the capital.
• We’ve committed to rooting out disparities in the Met’s misconduct system and have introduced focused workshops to improve promotion rates. As a result, since 2021 promotion pass rates for Black officers has increased from 68% to 75%.

The London Race Action Plan 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.

Over many years the Met has 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.

The four pillars of the plan will be delivered through tangible action across London, co-designed by the communities we serve. This will include: 

We know there is more to do, but this plan sets the right course to continue building a Met that our officers and public deserve.

Progress will be made publicly available via biannual updates.

Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police 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."