On November 7, 2025, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) published a landmark independent report by Dr Shereen Daniels, shining a harsh light on deep-rooted, systemic racism within Britain’s largest police force. The report, commissioned by the Met itself, examined decades of evidence and concluded that anti-Black discrimination is not only widespread but structurally embedded in the organization’s systems, leadership, and culture. The findings have reverberated through London’s corridors of power, reigniting urgent calls for transformation and accountability in a force that polices one of the world’s most diverse cities.
According to BBC News, Dr Daniels’ review—commissioned through the consultancy HR Rewired—went beyond surface-level issues, identifying thirty distinct patterns of harm that stretch far beyond individual misconduct. Instead, the report traces these harms to institutional design, revealing how the Met’s policies, governance, and everyday practices repeatedly reinforce racial inequities. “Systemic racism is not a matter of perception,” Dr Daniels asserted. “For almost fifty years, reviews of the Metropolitan Police have documented the harm experienced by Black Londoners, officers and staff. 30 Patterns of Harm turns the lens around. It examines the institution itself, showing how the Met’s systems, leadership, governance and culture produce racial harm while protecting the organisation from reform.”
The report’s diagnosis is stark: racism and anti-Blackness are not isolated incidents but are sustained through “a repeated institutional sequence” that affects both the community and Met staff. Dr Daniels’ analysis, which drew on more than forty years of evidence, found that darker-skinned staff and community members are more likely to be labelled as confrontational or suspicious, while lighter-skinned employees often receive quicker empathy and leniency. Within London’s Black communities, this has meant that force is more readily authorised, and the “adultification” of Black children—the tendency to perceive them as more adult-like, downplaying their vulnerability and criminalising their actions—remains a persistent problem.
These findings echo the conclusions of previous high-profile inquiries, including the 1999 Macpherson report (which first labelled the Met “institutionally racist” after the mishandling of Stephen Lawrence’s murder) and the 2023 Casey Review, which found the force to be institutionally racist, misogynistic, and homophobic. Dr Daniels’ report, however, moves from merely describing these failings to diagnosing their root causes. “True accountability begins with specificity,” she wrote. “When institutions speak in broad terms of ‘ethnic minorities’ or ‘diversity,’ those most harmed disappear from view. This work begins where harm is sharpest, because that is where structural change must start. Anti-Blackness is the clearest indicator of organisational dysfunction.”
The report’s publication has prompted a wave of responses from leaders and campaigners. Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who commissioned the review, acknowledged the scale of the challenge. “Dr Daniels’ report is powerful. It calls out that further systemic, structural, cultural change is needed,” he said. “London is a unique global city, and the Met will only truly deliver policing by consent when it is inclusive and anti-racist.” Rowley pointed to initiatives such as the New Met for London Plan and the London Race Action Plan as steps in the right direction, noting that trust among Black Londoners has improved by 10% over the past two years. Yet, he admitted, “the picture is complex and there is still much more to do.”
For many, however, these words ring hollow without concrete action. Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, “There is a culture of denial, dismissal, of almost waiting for the spotlight to be on—and as soon as the spotlight goes, then it’s business as normal.” He criticised the Met’s repeated promises of reform, arguing, “He said the same things in Baroness Casey’s review, he said the same things after Panorama… the words are fine, what we’re not seeing is action to back that up.”
London’s mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, also weighed in, calling the report’s diagnosis “stark” and demanding a faster pace of cultural reform. “There must be zero tolerance of all racism within the force and a lasting transformation in Met culture,” a spokesperson for the mayor said. The sentiment was echoed by Baroness Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen’s 1993 murder and the subsequent police failures became a national scandal. “The police must stop telling us that change is coming whilst we continue to suffer. That change must take place now,” she insisted. Imran Khan KC, the Lawrence family’s barrister, added, “This report lays out in shocking clarity that the time for talking is over, that promises to change can no longer be believed or relied on.”
The Daniels report also highlighted how these patterns of harm are not confined to Black communities alone. The Met itself acknowledged that many of the issues identified may apply to other minoritised groups, signalling a broader need for introspection and reform. The organisation pledged to work with partners in education, housing, and health to tackle the wider inequalities that intersect with policing—such as the disproportionate exclusion of Black children from schools and its link to increased police contact.
In response to the report, the Met has committed to opening meaningful discussions around accountability, structural change, equity, internal bias, and the use of police powers. This approach, according to the Met, will be informed by previous reviews and feedback from both the workforce and the communities it serves. The force says it will engage with Black communities and other minoritised groups to co-design the next phase of the London Race Action Plan or potentially chart a new path altogether.
Despite these pledges, the Met’s track record has left many sceptical. Earlier this year, secret filming by the BBC exposed serving Met officers making racist remarks and boasting about the use of force. Several officers have since been sacked, with Commissioner Rowley vowing to be “ruthless” in removing those unfit to serve. “Our commitment is clear: we are continuing to deliver the largest corruption clear-out in British policing history to remove those who do not belong,” Rowley said.
There are, undeniably, some signs of progress. Current surveys suggest that 74% of Londoners trust the Met, and 81% believe it is doing a good or fair job. Confidence among minoritised Londoners has risen by 10% in two years. Still, as the Daniels report and its many predecessors make painfully clear, these improvements are not enough to close the persistent gap in trust and outcomes between Black and other Londoners.
For Dr Daniels, the path forward is clear, if daunting: “For the Met, the challenge ahead is to build the leadership discipline to face what the report has revealed and act on its findings in a way that protects the public rather than the institution.” As Londoners watch closely, the question remains—will the Met finally deliver the transformation it has promised for so long, or will history repeat itself once more?
