Araweelo News Network
Uk(ANN)-London’s Metropolitan Police Service, known as Scotland Yard, or the Met, is being investigated for serious allegations of corruption and malpractice that includes ignoring racist practices in its own standards unit.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said Sunday that it was investigating concerns raised by whistleblowers that senior officials in the Metropolitan Police’s Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) had turned a blind eye to wrongdoing and even interfered with other investigations.
The IOPS said the department, which is responsible for rooting out misconduct in the metropolitan police, has also been involved in malpractices such as racist conducts.
“The investigation includes alleged interference in, and curtailment of, investigations by potentially conflicted senior officers, failure to investigate allegations of wrongdoing, systemic removal of the restrictions of officers under investigation and racial discrimination,” said Jonathan Green, the IOPC’s London director, adding that one of three officers that had been noticed for gross misconduct was also under criminal investigation.
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Cressida Dick, arrives for a service to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force (RAF) at Westminster Abbey in central London on July 10, 2018. (AFP photo)
Earlier reports had suggested that several officers from the London police, had come forward and reported to IOPC about some senior DPS members who had been shielding officers from a range of allegations.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said the force was fully cooperating with the authorities on the issue.
The Met has repeatedly been accused of racism with recent reports suggesting that it had listed a disproportionate amount of minorities in its gangs database.
Amnesty International, a major rights-advocacy group based in Britain, said in May that around 80 percent of those listed in the database were black citizens, many of whom had no convictions.
“It is clear that many people are being profiled based on factors that have nothing to do with serious offending,” said Amnesty in a report at the time.
Even the United Nations once criticized the police force in Britain for allowing “disproportionate number” of black and minority ethnic people to die in its police custody.
“The deaths reinforce the experiences of structural racism, over-policing and criminalization of people of African descent and other minorities in the UK,” a panel of UN human rights experts said in April.
Source: Presstv.com