Ex-police officer makes legal complaints against Met 'racism'

Resigned from Haringey and Enfield superintendent role in January this year

She and colleagues also reported a drawing of a swastika at a police station

Claims she was met with a wall of 'hostility' every time she sought promotion

A former high ranking police officer has claimed she was forced to resign from the Met because of 'institutional racism' and a hostile work environment.

The unnamed female Pakistani Muslim officer has made two claims with an employment tribunal against the London force, after leaving her position as a superintendent in January this year.

She is believed to have been the most senior female BAME and Muslim officer in the Met at the time.

The claims allege that white colleagues were 'routinely' favoured for promotion, and that she and other BAME colleagues were discriminated against, undermined and bullied, according to the Guardian.

She was among the officers who reported a drawing of a swastika found in a police station in 2019 to senior staff - but no action was ever taken.

An unnamed female Pakistani Muslim officer has made two claims with an employment tribunal against the London force, after leaving her position as a superintendent in January this year

The former employee had been working for Scotland Yard since the 1980s, and only began her senior management role at Haringey and Enfield in May 2018.

She first put forward a legal claim in August 2019, saying that while her hard work ethic and performance had been recognised by senior colleagues, she was met with a wall of 'hostility' when seeking promotion.

'If it were not for the institutional racism at the force, I would have achieved more senior rank,' she writes in the legal claim.

But after facing resistance, it is alleged a senior white officer told her to go through mediation on the matter rather than putting in a formal complaint.

When she attempted to go through process however, she found that mediation reduced claims of racism to 'poor management judgment'. She added that she was then harassed while filing a complaint.

She then tried to resign in late 2019, but stayed on with the promise of career development. When this did not materialise, she resigned in January 2020.

A Met Police spokesperson said: 'We actively encourage our officers and staff to challenge such behaviour if it is displayed and report it through the appropriate channels.'

But after further months of feeling she had little chance of her career being supported, she claims she was eventually forced to resign – constructively dismissed – due to the hostile working environment in January 2020.

Metropolitan Police have confirmed the officer has brought a claim, but that it would be 'inappropriate to comment further ahead of the employment tribunal hearing'.

The force highlighted that it has made a number of 'major' changes to the way complaints about discrimination and victimisation in the workplace are investigated, and that it 'champions fairness and equality'.

A spokesperson said: 'We actively encourage our officers and staff to challenge such behaviour if it is displayed and report it through the appropriate channels.'

The unnamed officer was also involved in reporting a drawing of a swastika at a police station to senior staff in 2019.

But in her complaint, she said that senior staff at the Met tried to silence her and colleagues and failed to investigate the drawing. No action was taken over the Nazi symbol.

Lawrence Davies, the lawyer representing the former officer, said: 'Her case is emblematic of racist work environments.

'In the context of the George Floyd tragedy, it is essential we move away from the Metropolitan police’s present institutional denial of racism and towards the acceptance of inequality and then to tackle the issue head-on. Racist officers must be dismissed, not promoted.'