Black Metropolitan police officers have complained of being put under pressure by white colleagues to donate to a fund that has raised £130,000 for two officers sacked for lying over the stop and search of a black British athlete and her Olympian partner.
Andy George, the president of the National Black Police Association, said he had received multiple accounts from black officers who felt pressed to give money to Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks, who were sacked for gross misconduct last week.
The pressure included an email sent to every member of one of the 12 basic command units – into which the Met police is divided – in which all officers were urged to hand over money for the sacked men, George said.
Clapham and Franks lost their jobs after being found to have falsely claimed to have smelled cannabis before stopping the Commonwealth Games sprinter Bianca Williams, 29, and Ricardo dos Santos, a 28-year-old Portuguese Olympian, as the couple had been returning to their west London home after training.
Their three-month-old son, Zuri, was in the back of their car during the incident in July 2020. The couple were handcuffed and searched on suspicion of having drugs and weapons but nothing was found. The disciplinary panel found as unproven claims that race played a part in their treatment.
As of Monday, a crowdfunding page set up by a person named only as “UK” had attracted more than £130,000 in donations – in excess of the £50,000 goal – some of which was said to have come from serving officers. Williams told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour programme on Monday that she was shocked by the amount of money that had been raised.
George said he had written to the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, after receiving complaints from officers, and through the Metropolitan Black Police Association, abour his members coming under pressure to join white colleagues in donating.
He said: “Black officers say they are sitting in parade rooms while others are donating – and they are really pushing them to [donate] as well. Or they are just under pressure because of the general conversation.
“They were made to feel really uncomfortable by their colleagues around not donating, and that forced them into actually doing it themselves. Black officers are also saying they are having discussions on different WhatsApp groups among themselves, and that the commissioner needs to come out and say this is wrong and it is the victim that needs to be supported.
“A lot of serving officers have donated to this fundraiser and, if you’re one or two black officers in a patrol room of 20 people, and everybody is accusing Ricardo dos Santos of lying – and how police need to get into the black community more because they are committing the crimes and we police need to support our man – it’s really difficult for a black officer to say ‘I’m not doing it’ if they’re by themselves.”
George said the Met seemed unable to reform. “What this fund shows and what the Met has shown at this moment in time is that they do not want the accountability,” he said. “They don’t want to be held accountable for their actions.”
Last March, a report from Lady Louise Casey found that the Metropolitan police was guilty of institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia. Rowley had rejected the use of the term “institutional” while saying he fully accepted the diagnosis of the Casey review.
George said he had written to Rowley to ask for a public show of “unity and reassurance for black communities”. “The fund should not be up and running, the misconduct process has a right to appeal and serving officers in particular need to let the process see itself out,” he said.
Speaking to Woman’s Hour, Williams said: “I feel like everyone has a right to do a crowdfund but in the circumstances it’s quite shocking, saying they shouldn’t have lost their jobs. But they lied and there has to be a punishment – they lost their jobs for that.”
In a statement, Williams’ solicitor said of the crowdfunding page: “The comments of the apparently serving officers not only demonstrates an unwillingness to be held to account but it exposes just how toxic the culture in the Met is, and how far off change seems to be.
“The commissioner should immediately come out to publicly support the panel’s decision and the importance of accountability in the Met if public confidence in the police stands a chance of being restored in London.”
Scotland Yard has been contacted for comment.
