Stephen Lawrence brother says 'time is ticking' for Met Commissioner to reform force

Stuart Lawrence calls on Sir Mark Rowley to speed up reforming Scotland Yard
Dr Stuart Lawrence
PA
John Dunne @jhdunne21 March 2024
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The brother of murdered Stephen Lawrence has said Londoners are still not getting the police service they deserve 25 years after a report into the death concluded the Met was “institutionally racist”.

Stuart Lawrence, a former teacher who also worked for the Home Office, said “time is ticking” for the Met to make urgent reforms.

He said the Met force is not being effectively held to account by the London Policing Board on which he is a member.

The board was assembled last September to monitor the force, but according to Dr Lawrence it is being used to "pat on the back" the Met.

He is one of 17 members of the oversight panel.

Stephen, 18, was fatally stabbed in south London in 1993.

The Macpherson report said the Met murder inquiry was "marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers".

Dr Lawrence told the BBC he hoped to meet with Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to "ask him some questions" as he called for more community policing and better scrutiny of the force which he says has still not been sufficiently reformed.

He added: "Time is ticking on the rest of his tenure, and what is the rest of that going to look like?"

His comments follow a report by Baroness Casey which found it to be institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic.

Among the scandals which have beset the Met in recent years was the killing of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens.

Dr Lawrence added on joining the police oversight panel: "I've seen in my time, through all of this, six or seven commissioners come through, and all promised to do something different and all promised to make the change I'd like to see.

"And none of them so far have been able to do it. So, I thought to myself, let me see. Let me go on the other side of the fence."

But he said he now had concerns about whether the meetings were allowing the "voice of Londoners" to be heard, and believed instead it had become a place for the Met to receive "a pat on the back."

"Baroness Casey said that these meetings shouldn't be where the Met keeps coming and says 'this is what I've done, and this is how well I've done it.”

"And, so far, those first three meetings have been just that. In my opinion, we need to do better. "

A spokesperson for London's Labour mayor Sadiq Khan, who chairs the policing board, said: “The new independent policing board includes leading experts in frontline policing and law, and has strong representation from London’s diverse communities who have been historically let down by the police.

"They continue to use their regular meetings in public to provide robust challenge to the Met commissioner.”

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