Final Report of the Morris Inquiry: The Case for Change

MANAGING DIFFERENCE
5.37 On the other hand, we have also received evidence that the needs of the
white majority may have been neglected in recent years:
“The Job’s got to be seen to be reflective of the community. But it needs to slow down a bit and
look at white officers, they are forgotten about.” (Speaker during a London Police Station visit.)
How the MPS manages difference in the workplace
5.38 A number of people have commented on the difficulty within the MPS of
managing situations where difference is an issue.
“I suspect that part of the difficulty is the way in which the Met responds when there are issues
of race, or indeed other diversity issues, involved in particular cases. There is a sense that, you
know, the rabbit is frozen in the headlamps, and as a result there is an overcompensation,
‘We must review this really thoroughly, we must do more’, rather than, again, managing things
at the earliest possible stage in the way any good manager would try and resolve issues and
deal with them appropriately.” (Evidence of Lord Harris, former Chair of the MPA.)
5.39 Lord Harris was speaking about the way the MPS handles conduct issues in
particular but this ‘rabbits in the headlights’ analogy clearly struck a chord with others.
“People freeze every time they hear the word race.” (Speaker during a London Police Station visit.)
“The perception is that if someone is not good at their job, if they are VEM or a woman,
managers won’t manage.” (Speaker during a London Police Station visit.)
5.40 We have received compelling evidence that many in the organisation are not
yet confident with, or do not fully understand, the principles of managing
difference. Indeed, many are fearful and anxious when faced with issues of
difference, particularly at more junior level. This means that in parts of the MPS
there is now a culture of ‘management by retreat’.
“… if senior management and very senior management support and are open-minded and
want to learn about different backgrounds and effects, that is wonderful, but you still cannot
get rid of the fear factor in the lower ranks; and they fear change, they fear difference. They
would fear me because I am a woman, they feared me because I was 40 when I joined the
police service, and they feared me because I was Jewish. So I had the three fears.”
(Evidence of Josephine Poole, Jewish Police Association.)
“Unfortunately, people are afraid to manage. They want to tick boxes when it suits them.
Suddenly diversity is a buzz word when promotion time comes around. The number of
enquiries we get,‘Oh, Mahommed, can you tell us a bit about diversity? I have got my
promotion interview tomorrow’. That is not what diversity is about.”
(Evidence of Mahommed Mahroof, Association of Muslim Police.)
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