Call for ethnic minorities to boycott Met
Black and Asian police officers are being asked to boycott Metropolitan police recruitment campaigns.
Relations broke down after the collapse of talks between senior police commissioners and suspended officer Superintendent Ali Dizaei.
Supt Dizaei, from Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, was suspended from his job in 2001 amid allegations of corruption. However, after a two year investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed with charges that he fiddled travel expenses.
The Met has a target to recruit about eight per cent of its force from the ethnic minorities by 2009. Assistant Commissioner in charge of human resources, Bernard Howe, said the force was “extremely concerned” about the boycott.
National Black Police Association (NBPA) president Ray Powell said he was bitterly disappointed at the collapse of talks about Mr Dizaei’s reinstatement, but said that the NBPA could no longer encourage black and Asian recruits to join a force that had openly and persistently discriminated against its staff, officers and the community.
The NBPA is also calling for the suspension of senior officers involved in the investigation into Mr Dizaei, who claimed that he had been the victim of a “witch hunt”.
