Revealed: Met Police ‘Exit Data’ Shows Just How Bad it is to Work there for Some Staff 

Black and ethnic minority Metropolitan Police employees are four times more likely to quit due to bullying and harassment than their white colleagues, according to internal data obtained by Byline Times.

The figures, from March 2023, also show employees of colour are five times more likely to resign due to discrimination compared to white colleagues, and that females were three times more likely to resign due to bullying, harassment and discrimination than men.

One-fifth of all female leavers cited bullying and harassment as the reason for quitting, compared to 9% of men.

The findings come after Byline Times reported last month that Amina Ahmed, a senior female Asian Met employee, quit her job citing an “environment [of] discrimination, bullying and harassment”, one week after the National Black Police Association (NBPA) called for a boycott of the Met by people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

NBPA president, Andy George, said that the data on resignations “comes as no shock to our members” as their “lived experiences of working in the Met is one of hostility from colleagues and a lack of support from managers”.

George believes that Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley “has tried to engage in a PR exercise” to highlight reforms being made, but “this data shows that things are not as they appear”.

“The Met has also taken no action to reduce the disproportionality in the misconduct system despite Baroness Casey highlighting that black officers were 81% more likely to be disciplined,” he added.

“The Met must take a step back, confront the reality of racism in the force, and bring about meaningful and impactful changes rather than engaging in a PR campaign which dismisses the experiences of black, Asian and minority ethnic officers and staff”.

Miss Ahmed told Byline Times that black, ethnic minority and female Met employees were leaving “in their droves” due to the “toxic” environment.

The Met responded by saying it was undertaking “extensive work” to “address valid concerns about disproportionality and to provide officers and staff from all backgrounds with the confidence that they will be supported to succeed and progress in their careers”.

The Met’s so-called ‘exit data’, generated during interviews with those leaving in the year ending March 2023 – the same month that Baroness Casey’s report found the force was “systematically misogynist and racist” – revealed that 13% of all leavers had reported having “experienced or witnessed bullying or harassment” in the previous 12 months. The figure rose to 27% across their career in the Met.

It suggests disproportionately high levels of staff who are leaving the Met come from black or ethnic minority backgrounds (26% compared to the 19% of the workforce who are from those communities), or are female (42% compared to the 37% of workforce who are women).

Forty per cent of black and ethnic minority leavers said they had experienced or witnessed bullying or harassment in the past 12 months, rising to 46% across their time on the force. That compares to 11% of white staff.

Almost half (49%) of female leavers said they had experienced or witnessed bullying or harassment during their employment, compared to 19% of men, with 32% having experienced it in the past year, compared to 11% of men.

The Met’s publicly available HR workforce data, published in November 2023, shows that there are no chief superintendents or commanders who are female and from an ethnic minority background. Only 7% of all chief superintendents and commanders are from ethnic minority backgrounds, despite these individuals making up 46% of London’s population.

Despite an uplift in the overall number of police officers, sergeants and inspectors between December 2022 to November 2023, the percentage drawn from ethnic minority backgrounds has remained stagnant, with the biggest uplift in sergeants being those who are white.

The percentage of detective inspectors from ethnic minority backgrounds fell by 7% (from 67 to 62) between December 2022 and November 2023. Only 6% of superintendents are from ethnic minority backgrounds, numbering six compared to 104 who are white.