DAME CRESSIDA Dick has denied that the Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist.

The Met commissioner refuted the definition and said she did not find it a helpful label during an interview with Channel 4 News yesterday.

Dick, who was put in charge of implementing the recommendations from the Macpherson report, told the broadcaster that she was very proud of what her organisation did and that the Met has come a “very, very, very long way”.

“We have zero tolerance of racist behaviour within the Met. Just last week somebody was sacked for racist contact. And everybody knows that that is the case,” Dick told Channel 4 News.

Pointing to the disproportionately within the Met. Dick highlighted that black and minority ethnic Met police staff are twice as likely than their white peers to be subjected to misconduct process, a disparity she said she has reduced.

Her comments come following a number of high profile incidents of stops involving Met police officers and black people, including Labour MP Dawn Butler.

Dick said she could not put herself in the shoes of black young men who are repeatedly stopped despite being innocent but defended the controversial policing tactic.

“We do stop and search to protect people, we do it to save lives because violent crime is out number one priority,” Dick said.

Recent figures have shown that in London, young black men were stopped and searched more than 20,000 times during lockdown.

Stephen Lawrence

This week it was announced the investigation into Stephen Lawrence’s murder was moved to an inactive phase.

The timing of the decision has been criticised.

Retired Met superintendent Leroy Logan tweeted: “The crazy decision by Cressida Dick to shelve the #StephenLawrence case couldn’t come at a worst time [with] trust in police at it’s lowest for decades, especially during this time of the #BlackLivesMatter movement & she didn’t have to do it. She doesn’t care!”

Following the news and ahead of Dick’s interview Jermain Jackman told The Voice: “At a time where the world is talking about race and racism. In the same breath Cressida Dick makes her comments about the institutional racism, then they move the Stephen Lawrence case to an inactive case fully well knowing that there’s at least two killers still out on the streets.”

He added: “Cressida Dick is sounding like the Met police commissioners before the Scarman report, before the Macpherson report, where they said there was no institutional racism, where they said the Metropolitan Police is not racist. And what have those reports and reviews found, that they were racist.”

Dick said she cares deeply about the investigation into Stephen’s death.

“We will review every two years and at that point if there’s been forensic technology breakthroughs it’s likely we will start again,” she said.

She said that the Met will respond to any new information and that while she didn’t want to hold out false hope, it seemed extremely likely that at some stage the case would no longer be inactive.