ABSTRACT
At the funeral of his murdered son Damilola, in January 2001, Richard Taylor said to me, ‘I am depending on you’. With these words I was reminded of the privileged role that I held as a police officer empowered to investigate the death of another human being and of the trust that he, his family and his community placed in me to deliver justice for Damilola. This, therefore, is my personal story, and the story of how the Metropolitan Police Service faced the charges made by the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry of professional incompetence, failed leadership and institutional racism, and embarked on arguably the most significant change in its history.
