‘Legitimacy and trust’ are key to policing problems

• THE sacking of two police officers following the “unjustified” stop and search of athletes Bianca Williams & Ricardo dos Santos in Maida Vale confirms very clearly what Louise, Baroness Casey’s review of the Metropolitan Police Service said quite clearly in March this year.

That is, the black communities in London are “…under-protected – disproportionately the victims of homicides and domestic abuse; and over-policed – facing disproportionate use of stop and search and use of force by the Met”. And that a huge and radical step is required to regain “police legitimacy and trust” among these communities.

Such instances go back further than even the 1993 Stephen Lawrence murder case, to the 1970s and 1980s in the W9 neighbourhood and nearby, like at the Mangrove, where the MPS kept raiding for drugs but never found anything there at all.

The only positive in this saga has been the right to complain has been upheld via the Independent Office for Police Conduct and given the couple, Ms Williams and Mr Santos, some justice.

The MPS’s response to Casey has to deal with this continuous reality for black communities in London to earn the trust of Londoners.

MURAD QURESHI
@MuradQureshiLDN
www.muradqureshi.com