Responding to the admission today (Thursday) by Police Scotland chief constable Iain Livingstone that his force is institutionally racist and discriminatory, Black Equity Organisation Chief Executive Dr Wanda Wyporska said:
“This admission is a major first step in the development of cultures within every Police force that takes ownership of failings and publicly commits to addressing them.
“Sir Iain Livingstone should be applauded for his admission, but now the hard work of rooting out the racists, misogynists, and homophobes, and dismantling the structures that allowed them to flourish, begins.
“It is striking that at the country’s largest police force, the Met, which has been castigated in independent report after independent report for being racist, homophobic and misogynistic, no such admission has been made. Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley must follow Iain Livingstone’s lead, admit that there are institutional problems and commit to dealing with them once and for all.”