Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has denied that there is two-tier policing in the capital.
He told GB News: “Officers are going out wanting to act without fear or favour. I think some of the debates I’ve seen on some news programs over the last few days…it’s quite bizarre.
“We end up with this debate where you’ll have one pundit saying the police are two-tier and are biased against white communities, and another pundit saying no, they’re not, the police are institutionally racist and biased against black communities. Neither are true.
“Officers are out there day in and day out trying to do the right thing on behalf of the public. Of course, we like any big institution, society has issues with racism, with misogyny, and we have to pay attention to those ourselves and make sure that we tackle those, and we’re as free of those as we possibly can be.
“So, of course, we’re paying attention to them, but day in and day out, those decisions on the streets by officers, what they care about is taking on criminals and protecting victims, and they’re not interested in being political footballs.”
He added: “We want officers to go out day in and day out and enforce the law without fear or favour. We also want an organisation that is fair and inclusive, and everyone has an equal chance of success. One of the things I’m proud of in the Met, the work we’ve done over recent years, a lot of organisations struggle with progression and see that sort of black or female members of the organisation don’t get promoted and move through their careers as well as white men in the Met – that’s not true.
“The successful candidates are at least as diverse as the eligible candidates. Paying attention to things like that is part of being a fair organisation. And on the streets, part of being a police service is operating without fear or favour and taking on the criminal, whatever their colour, whatever their heritage, that’s what we’ll do, and we’ll always follow the risk.”
Asked if he thought the unrest seen in Belfast overnight could spread, he said: “I really feel for colleagues in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, they’re really dealing with some very challenging situations on the streets, of course. There have been a couple of very contentious incidents.
“There’s public debate about those, but we see some of the extreme rhetoric that tends to sort of be more and more common in public debate now, driving some of this activity. We saw it, didn’t we, with Southport, where extreme rhetoric and online commentary led to disorder, so we’re paying close attention to it.
“We’ll be able to deal with anything that does happen. I think it’s really challenging for police officers today. They, they don’t enjoy being a political football in the culture wars that so frequently dominate public debate. All they want to do is go out, take on criminals, protect victims, and they’re out there day in and day out, protecting without fear or favour, and they need that public support rather than being at the centre of this sort of battle of culture wars from either side.”
