ABSTRACT

For the past six years, the Metropolitan Police (Met) has had to cope with the aftermath of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in a racially motivated attack. The Lawrence family’s misgivings about the conduct of the investigation into their son’s death in April 1993 led to an initial internal inquiry, then an inquiry ordered by the Police Complaints Commission and finally a public inquiry which resulted in the Macpherson Report in February 1999. That report contained the conclusion that the Met was ‘institutionally racist’. In response, the Met launched its Diversity Strategy, admitting that there had been ‘issues of confidence and trust’ between the Met and ethnic communities for some time. Working with the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), the Met has continued to hold public forums and police briefings to promote its strategy. However, with a workforce of 27,000 police officers and 14,000 civilians, there are doubts about whether the strategy has really changed things. ‘The commitment of John Grieve [Deputy Assistant Commissioner and Head of the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force] and his officers has not yet reached the fingers and toes of the Met in relation to all of their dealings with black people on the street, all of the time’, according to Barbara Cohen, Principal Legal Officer for the CRE (quoted in Gray 1999: 10-12). Internal communications is a vital part of the work of the PR department within the Met, ensuring that all staff understand the ‘corporate’ policies.