LimbicNutrition Weblog

Ken Livingstone has demanded urgent action to tackle discrimination against black officers in the Met.

The Mayor has called on the Metropolitan Police Authority to intervene amid claims that black staff are 12 times more likely than their white counterparts to be involved in Employment Tribunal proceedings against Scotland Yard.

He says a string of large-scale investigations involving black officers have damaged the Met’s standing in minority communities and have hampered recruitment. ”

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=507315&in_review_text_id=470298

What does “black staff are 12 times more likely to be involved in Employment Tribunal proceedings” mean?

Is there discrimination against ethnic minority staff in the Met to such a degree that they are 12x more likely to take their employers to tribunal that their white colleagues or do these figures not tell us something else?

It is very possible that these figures reflect ethnic minority police staff being hyper-sensitive and paranoid, taking every slight, conflict or grievance as evidence of racism. It could be that ethnic minority police officers are lining up to get a dolance from the Tribunal gravy train, keen to exploit the Met’s fear of appearing racist and capitalising on the unfair stereotype of the Met as institutionally racist. It also could be that despite the massive efforts on the part of the Met to fight all forms of discrimination in the force, racism is rampant and non-white staff are being discriminated against.

One this is certain. These figures alone do not answer help us much in figuring out the truth, falsity or degree of truth in nay of the above.

Livingston wrote “I am deeply concerned about the disproportionate number of employment tribunal cases that have been brought by black staff. These large-scale investigations into black staff have a considerable impact on London’s black communities. We cannot expect them to come forward and join a service that is a dozen times more likely to investigate black officers than their white colleagues.”

Here is conflates two issues. That of large scale investigations in to certain minority policemen and the growing problem of black staff taking the Met to tribunal. Some of the cases look like shake downs where huge payouts have been make on dubious and unsupported claims of discrimination. That said there have been several cases against senior ethnic minority police officers which were misadvised at best and downright idiotic and very possibly racist. I have yet to hear how the police justify spending tens of thousands of pounds investigating an alleged £80 fiddle.

I do not think that these high tribunal rates are in themselves an indication of real discrimination. Strictly speaking they are as much an indication of discrimination as an indication of abuse of the system by black officers.

No doubt many ethnic minority staff believe they have been discriminated against. Whether this is really the case or not is unclear. I suspect that there may be abuse of the system by some unscrupulous ethnic minority staff and I believe that there is genuine discrimination in the Met that affects some staff. The problem is that these are not neatly matched up and easily distinguished. A discrimination hoaxer and paranoid with a chip on their shoulder may obscure the reality of discrimination against another less vocal person.

A cynic might say that it is little wonder that so many ethnic minority police staff take the Met to Tribunal - the rewards are massive and there is no requirement for evidence - just vehement accusation.

I suspect any people given these inducements might find them hard to resists, especially when they have some grievance or existing bad feeling.

What is the solution? There are no easy fixes but I think this may help.

I think that financial inducements ought to be limited by capping discrimination payouts. I think that internal grievances procedures ought to be improved (if possible) with tribunals only used as last resorts.

I think that the police should think very carefully about the impact of launching investigations of any senior officer where the allegation is not related to corruption (by that I mean criminals influence the police through money or threat) or felony. Matter relating to low value pilfering and embezzlement ought to be handled extremely sensitively and the officer ought to be given the benefit of the doubt. Where a racial hoax is perpetrated, it ought to submitted to the police complaints commission and handled by the ethnic minority liaison committee as a crime against minorities - because this is what it really is. That way the Ethnic Minority Liaison Committee will decide what action take and it is highly unlikely to be racist or discriminatory.