Agenda Alliance responds to review into systemic racism within the Metropolitan Police

Today (7 November 2025), a structural review of systemic racism within the London Metropolitan Police Service, which has been buried since July 2025, has finally come to light.

Unfortunately, we’ve come to anticipate what the findings of these reviews and reports will be before we even read them. This instance was no exception.

The report, '30 Patterns of Harm', commissioned by the Metropolitan Police from the consultancy HR Rewired, finds that not only are Black women serving in the force targeted with stigmatising stereotypes by their white male counterparts - such as being seen as ‘aggressive’ or ‘intimidating’ - but Black women and girls in distress, that the force are meant to protect, are read as disruptive, and are regularly restrained rather than protected.

Heartbreakingly, these attitudes pervade in the force's approach to Black girls. Black children who go missing – particularly those in care – are framed as ‘absconding’ rather than missing, and given less priority. Black girls are treated through the lens of adultification – their distress seen as confrontation, rather than vulnerability.

Behind all of these findings, are Black women and girls crying out for support only to receive discrimination and criminalisation. Research for our Young Women’s Justice Project found that Black young women at risk, and young women with experience of the care system, are particularly likely to be criminalised rather than offered care and support. These findings only confirm what we already knew. This constant cycle of harm, and failure of systems and services meant to protect, has to stop.

Our recommendations, co-produced with Black women and girls within our Young Women’s Justice Project, are clear:

• All Police and Crime Commissioners should appoint girls and young women with lived experience, particularly Black women and girls, as Young Women Advisors in the development and delivery of their Police and Crime plans, including making plans for the commissioning of relevant local services.
• Police and Crime Commissioners must ensure all frontline staff are able to recognise and respond to the needs of Black women and girls, by resourcing specialist services led by and for Black, Asian and minoritised groups and young women with lived experience. This will help to develop and deliver training and guidance for professionals which addresses the ways in which young women’s age, gender, ethnicity, race, faith and community and cultural backgrounds intersect and inform their experiences of disadvantage and contact with the police.
• All UK police forces must review their VAWG Action Plans and ensure inclusion of objectives to train police officers about the ways in which experiences of violence and abuse can drive young women’s “offending behaviours” and experiences of criminalisation.
• Finally, the impending strategy of the Women’s Justice Board must make clear reference and solutions to the needs and experiences of Black women and girls, in particular, their experiences of policing.

We urge the Metropolitan Police, the Home Office, and the NPCC to meaningfully engage with the voluntary sector led by and for Black women and girls, as well as the women and girls with lived experience that they work with, to finally stamp out this pervading issue of force-wide racism and misogyny once and for all.