News from Caroline Russell: Mayor agrees to tackle lack of police transparency

Mayor admitted today that he has “concerns” about lack of transparency from the Met when Caroline Russell raised issues in relation to her requests for information on disproportionality in policing.

In July 2021, Caroline asked about the demographics of people who had their e-scooters seized and was told “the Met do not have the data to be able to report against this”.[1]

However, a response to a Freedom of Information request published by campaign organisation Possible in November, found that Black Londoners were over three times more likely to be stopped for e-scooter offences than white Londoners, so the data did exist.[2]

Caroline Russell says:

“I’m glad that the Mayor agrees that there is an issue here because the Assembly and Londoners demand transparency and the Met should be following both the letter and the spirit of the Mayor’s Action Plan.

“The data I asked for clearly existed and revealed a worrying disproportionality; Black Londoners were over three times more likely to be stopped for e-scooter offences than white Londoners.

“There is still a lot of work to be done on police powers. If we are going to ensure the police are listening to and understand communities properly, we need to know what’s happening on the ground.

“That starts with full transparency so we can hold the Mayor and the Met to account on disproportionality and I am glad the Mayor has agreed to discuss this.”

It has been a year since the release of the Mayor’s first Action Plan for Transparency, Accountability and Trust in Policing, which states that one of the most important elements in tackling crime is “addressing the concerns of black Londoners about the lack of transparency that they feel exists around the activities of city-wide police teams.”

Caroline argues that by not answering her question, the Met has failed to uphold that.[3]