It will take 100 years for us to get racial mix that reflects city, admit London police chiefs

HUMAN RESOURCES bosses at Britain’s biggest police force have found it will take 100 years before it has the same ethnic mix as the population it serves.

Currently, 14 per cent of Metropolitan Police officers are from BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds – this is 16 per cent among PCs, then less than 10 per cent for higher ranks, up to chief officers where the proportion is four per cent.

BAME officers and staff are more likely to resign from the force or raise grievances, and the Met’s human resources department found that it would take a century to match the proportions of the population of London if it continued to recruit at current rates.

According to data from the 2011 Census, 40.2 per cent of London residents identified as Black, Asian, Mixed or Other ethnic group. The force’s head of HR, Clare Davies, said: “For many the progress is too slow.

“Some would say that we need to do more than we have done, particularly in terms of our recruitment and representation.

“If we continue, even with the great progress we’ve made, it would take over 100 years to be representative of London.”

The force wants to boost recruitment of BAME officers by another 250 per year.

Ms Davies and force chief Cressida Dick spoke to journalists to mark 20 years since the publication of the damning Macpherson report, which branded the force institutionally racist. Commissioner Ms Dick said the 1999 report into the aftermath of the black teenager’s murder had “defined my generation of policing”.

She does not believe the force is now institutionally racist.

Stephen Lawrence was murdered by a gang of racists while waiting for a bus in Eltham, south-east London, in 1993. The bungled initial investigation into his death was hampered by claims of racism, corruption and incompetence, and it took nearly 20 years for two of his five or six killers finally to be brought to justice.

Ms Dick paid tribute to Stephen’s parents, Baroness (Doreen) Lawrence and Neville Lawrence, whom she said had fought “absolutely tirelessly” for justice. The Met admitted last year that it had no new leads in the investigation into Stephen’s murder.