Press Release… Press Release… Press Release… Press Release.
Immediate Release Sat 11th June 2022
London's Black Communities Issue Open Invite to Shortlisted Met Police Chief Candidates.
The Alliance for Police Accountability (APA), a UK national African and Caribbean heritage organisation formed in response to the murder of George Floyd, has extended an open invitation to the two shortlisted candidates for the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to meet London's Black Communities.
The APA is holding its second London Black communities' consultation event, Met Commissioner: What do London's Black Communities Want? on Thursday June 16th at 6.30 pm at the IDPAD Empowerment Centre, 18-24 Lower Clapton Road, London E5 0PD
The APA conducted a consultation on this question among its members in February 2022, followed by a very successful public event held in Brixton on March 2nd 2022, with 4,000 people either attending or taking part online.
You can watch our first APA consultation event held in Brixton here and book your in-person place for this second event in Hackney here.
The Home Secretary, Boris Johnson and Mayor for London Sadiq Khan will interview the two shortlisted Met internal candidates on June 20th, 2022. Current Met Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave and Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley are the shortlisted candidates.
In April, the APA wrote to the Home Secretary requesting that London Black communities be informally involved in the recruitment and interview process through the London Mayors' Office. That request was acknowledged but essentially ignored by the Home Secretary.
In March, the Brixton consultation expressed the unanimous view that any new Commissioner must accept the reality of police institutional racism. This was seen as essential if he was to repair the deep, inter-generational damage to Black public confidence in the Met, currently at an all-time low.
Public confidence figures clearly show that the Met does not police London's Black communities with consent.
Any new Commissioner will need to secure the support of London's Black communities if we are to avoid a severe further deterioration of what are already profoundly strained relations.
Lee Jasper, former Director of Policing in London (2000-2008) and Chair of the APA, said,
"It's important that these candidates meet and hear from London's Black communities. Given the level of public distrust of the majority of Londoners, a majority of which are Black and Asian communities, Women and Lesbian and Gay communities. So, we've extended a genuine invitation to both candidates to attend this meeting.
We believe post-George Floyd, there needs to be a paradigm shift away from the toxic past practices, and there needs to be much deeper community engagement with this process. In some US states, this is an elected, not selected, position.
Though the government has ignored our demands, we believe that these candidates need to demonstrate that they hear, understand, and fully appreciate the depth of London's black communities' anger and concerns.
Therefore, both candidates are invited to come and have an informal chat, engage, and hear directly from London's Black communities themselves. Attendance would demonstrate that the candidates understand the importance of establishing a significant break with the past while respecting London Black communities.
Whatever the Home Secretary's views on institutional racism in the Met, the new Commissioner, if they are to be successful, will need to sufficiently demonstrate the independence of mind, thought, and action necessary to win back a lost community to the police. They will need to be brave, very brave. “
All APA panellists are available for interview call 07984 181979 to arrange.
Editor’s note.
The Alliance of Police Accountability (APA) is a new and powerful network of Black organisations responsible for delivering a two-year national policing consultation exercise with African Caribbean heritage communities in England and Wales.
The APA will revisit, critically address, and reinforce the founding principles of policing as established by Sir Robert Peel and the core principle of policing with consent.
The Project recognises both the historical and contemporary growing tensions between English and Welsh black communities and the police following the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Project will address two broad but essential questions.
- What do black want from policing, and what do we see as the core community policing values that address institutional racism and the lived experience of black communities?
- From a Public Health objective, what are our primary responsibilities in seeking to reduce serious violence in our communities?
We aim to explore the black experience of policing, co-produce a Black community policing public health framework, and develop an action plan that addresses these two critical issues.
The APA Project was developed by the Black Men 4 Change network and is chaired by Lee Jasper of Blaksox, who conceived the Project.
