Another review of institutional racism in the Police Service is not needed and will only stand in the way of making real progress on diversity, a senior police HR figure has warned.
The Association of Muslim Police (AMP) last month urged the Home Secretary to launch a review of racism in the police after 20 of the 43 forces in England and Wales refused to co-operate with a survey into potential discrimination against black, Asian and Muslim officers.
It came at the same time as Britain’s most senior Asian officer, assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, began preparing to sue the Metropolitan Police for racial discrimination.
But Met Police HR director Martin Tiplady said two reviews of institutional racism in the police, identified by the Macpherson inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s death 15 years ago, had already taken place. He insisted that high-profile cases of alleged racism should not be used as the grounds on which another police racism review was carried out.
Tiplady told Personnel Today: “I don’t know why some of my colleagues did not fill out the [AMP] questionnaire. But there is no need for high profile matters around at the moment to drive the view for another ‘institutional racism’ review.
“We should just concentrate on making the policing environment much more [attractive], rather than spending time and effort on another review,” he said.
Tiplady could not comment on the Ghaffur case specifically, but said the mediation process was under way.
