Met gangs matrix ‘unfairly damages young black lives and breaks data laws’
SCOTLAND YARD is wrongly jeopardising the future of some young black Londoners because of “serious breaches” in the way it operates its gangs database, a government watchdog ruled today.
The Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, said that flaws in the Met’s “Gangs Matrix” of 3,200 names were so bad that in some cases “Al Capone-style” enforcement tactics were being deployed against people listed on the database solely as victims of crime.
She said information about suspected gang i nvolve m e n t wa s b e i n g inappropriately shared with housing bodies and education authorities as a result, bringing the risk of eviction and other sanctions.
It was also leading to other action including targeting for benefit penalties, extra stop and search, and even parking fines.
She added that these failings and others — including an absence of oversight of the system over many years and a failure to consider t h e mat r i x ’s potentially discriminatory impact — risked harming community relations and undermining efforts to fight violent crime.
The findings come in a highly critical ruling issued today by Ms Denham on the operation of the gangs matrix. A separate investigation by her into leaked information about people on the gangs matrix onto social media — as revealed by the Standard last week — is still going on.
The database is used by the Met to log those believed to be involved in gang crime and to direct action against them, but campaign groups argue it targets “young, black males” disproportionately and inflicts lasting harm on their prospects.
In her ruling
today, Ms Denham emphasises that the matrix has a valid purpose and the nearly 200 gangs operating in London pose a challenge that “cannot be underestimated”. She warns, however, that the way the database is operated currently breaks data protection laws and the Met’s own rules.
“My investigation revealed serious breaches of data protection laws with the potential to cause damage and distress to the disproportionate number of young black men on the matrix,” she said. “Ignoring people’s fundamental data rights erodes trust and confidence, which risks alienating the communities the Met serves.”
Her ruling reveals that 88 per cent of those on the matrix — described as “gang nominals” — are from a black or other ethnic minority background.
She says the breaches include failure to distinguish clearly between perpetrators of gang crime and those who are victims, with some included solely because they have been stabbed or shot in gang-related violence. Other failings include the “blanket sharing” of information about people on the matrix with “third parties” such as housing and education bodies.
Ms Denham said the result was an “excessive” use of the matrix because the Met “permits enforcement action to be taken across the full range of its ‘Al Capone approach’ measures in respect of all gang nominals”
She added: “Such enforcement action is likely to, and indeed intended to, have a significant adverse impact on the a f fe c te d individual. Enforcement against all gang nominals, regardless of their risk rating, is excessive.”
Her ruling says that because so many on the matrix are black this brings “obvious potential issues of discrimination” and “issues of fostering good relations”. Other problems identified include a lack of security in how the Met stores and shares the database.
The ruling also discloses that some boroughs keep uncontrolled additional lists of “gang associates”, while on the matrix itself some “data subjects” who should have been removed were not.
The Met has been ordered to put measures in place within six months to comply with the law. In response, it said there was “clear evidence the gangs matrix can help to reduce offending and serious violence on the streets of London” and it would continue to use it. But it said it also accepted the findings of today’s ruling and was “working hard” to address them.