Met boss attacks police ‘trial by social media’ in Dawn Butler case

THE police must be allowed to carry out their job without being subjected to “trial by social media”, one of Scotland Yard’s most senior officers has said, as he defended officers who stopped a black politician as she was driving through London on Sunday.

Dawn Butler, the Labour MP for Brent Central, accused the Metropolitan Police of institutional racism, after a car she was travelling in was pulled over in east London.

Ms Butler filmed the exchange and uploaded the footage to social media, prompting a fierce debate. But deputy commissioner Sir Steve House said subjecting officers to “trial by social media” was making it difficult for them to do their job.

Sir Steve said that the officers had not been aware of the colour or ethnicity of the occupants of the vehicle because it had tinted windows and he insisted they had acted in an entirely professional and polite way.

In a statement, Sir Steve said: “The officers who undertook the stop were from the Violent Crime Taskforce and were in the area as part of our proactive work to protect communities from violence. Criminals often use vehicles to travel in and to commit crime, therefore officers will often check cars to see if there is anything that requires them to stop it and do further checks.

“The officers ran a number-plate check on the vehicle. At this stage, the officers still didn’t know who the occupants of the car were, including their ethnicity because the car windows were tinted. As a result of an officer making a human error as he inputted the car registration, the Police National Computer returned details of a car from another part of the UK.

“The officers were not initially aware of this problem… Ms Butler has said she has no complaint about ‘how’ the stop was conducted; rather her concerns lie in why the stop was initiated and I have discussed these concerns with her.”