Home Office figures show Met is far whiter than the population it serves

The Metropolitan Police is far whiter than the population of London as a whole, figures show.

According to analysis of police workforce figures by getwestlondon , the percentage of police officers from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds is low compared to the ethnic makeup of the city.

Across the capital London, BMEs make up 40% of the total population, but constitute only around 13% of all police officers in the area .

That makes the police force the least ethnically representative of the people they serve out of anywhere in the country.

Across England as a whole, meanwhile, the police are far more similar to the population in terms of ethnicity.

Around 15% of people in the country are from non-white backgrounds, compared to 13% of all police officers.

The figures also revealed that, in London, BME people working for the police are far more likely to be in supporting roles, rather than working as full-time officers.

They showed 37% of all community support officers are from BME backgrounds, as are 33% of part-time volunteer officers and 29% of behind the scenes staff.

A spokesperson for the Met said it is making strong progress in recruitment to improve diversity, with 27% of last year’s recruits from minority backgrounds, allowing the force to hit the milestone of 4,000 BME officers in August.

He said: “This means that more than half of all the BME officers in the UK are in the Met.

“BME officers are represented at every rank up to and including Assistant Commissioner but we recognise that we need to do more to ensure greater diversity at every level in the Met.”

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