London police facing action over Black sprinter's stop and search
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Police officers from London's Metropolitan Police force are accused of racial profiling by a gold medalist sprinter after a stop and search.
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Their car was searched on suspicion of carrying drugs and weapons but nothing was found
Five police officers in London could face disciplinary action following their stop and search of British sprinter and gold medalist, Bianca Williams.
Williams accused the Met Police force of racial profiling after she was stopped for a search in July 2020, later stating that she and her partner, Portuguese runner Ricardo dos Santos, were repeatedly stopped by police, prompting an apology by the force.
Both runners were handcuffed and their car was searched but nothing was found. They were not arrested.
A review by an organization that deals with police complaints in England and Wales has been reviewing whether police forces discriminate against ethnic minorities. The Met Police had said they thought the officers acted appropriately, based on a review of their bodycam footage.
But Deputy Assistant Commissioner Bas Javid said the force had accepted the recommendations of a review by the police standards watchdog.
Williams told BBC radio after the incident, "They (the police) see a black male driving a nice car, an all-black car, and they assume that he was involved in some sort of gang, drug, violence problem."
This is not the first of the string of scandals that hit the UK police force.
In February, London's police chief Cressida Dick announced she is stepping down following a series of reported police misconduct involving racism, sexism, and the murder of a young woman by a London police officer.
This came after an official report from England's police watchdog, which stated that London police officers routinely made jokes about rape and exchanged racist messages, detailing a pattern of misogyny and bullying in the force, the latest blow to an embattled service that has faced intense scrutiny in recent months.
The findings reflected a troubling culture within the London Metropolitan Police Service, according to the report released by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the police watchdog, which detailed the incidents were not isolated or the work of a few "bad apples".
