Metropolitan Police anti-violence operation primarily targeted teenagers and black people, reports suggest

Scotland Yard reportedly considered not running the lockdown scheme over fears of its ‘disproportionality’

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A Metropolitan Police initiative set up during the coronavirus pandemic with the aim of visiting hundreds of London’s “most prolific or violent offenders” at their homes primarily targeted teenagers and black people, according to reports.

Operation Pima ran between May and July 2020 and saw officers take advantage of the “unique opportunity to reach individuals while they were at home” during the first lockdown, in a bid to “prevent and tackle violence in the capital”, Scotland Yard said.

But the operation has been accused of “worrying disproportionality”, after figures obtained by freedom of information requests reportedly showed that, of the 758 people who officers either visited or attempted to visit, 61 per cent were black – despite black people accounting for 13 per cent of London’s population.

Furthermore, more than six in 10 were reported to be aged 18 or under, while 15 per cent were younger than 16.

According to Liberty Investigates, which first reported the allegations alongside The Times, the Met wrote in its equalities impact assessment for the scheme that “due to the extent of the [racial] disproportionality a consideration was made to not run the operation at all.”

In its freedom of information responses, the Met reportedly said the scheme had targeted only “the most prolific or violent offenders” known to the police force.

But while those listed for a visit needed to have been identified in at least four internal crime or intelligence reports relating to knife crime, gun crime, night-time economy or personal robbery offences, they could merely be listed as a suspect rather than an offender, according to the reports.

Announcing the initiative, aimed at turning those identified away from crime and towards “diversionary activities” such as education, training and employment programmes, Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said last May that officers would discuss with them “the opportunity they now have to get away from a life of violence”.

Only 82 people offered such programmes by the Met expressed an interest, according to the reports.

The Met’s violence lead, Commander Alex Murray, said: “Our priority is to prevent and tackle violence in the capital and Londoners would rightly expect us to seek every opportunity to do this. Operation Pima was a specific operation run during lockdown where officers had the unique opportunity to reach individuals while they were at home.

“The core aim of Operation Pima was to meet with individuals and encourage them to take up diversion opportunities to reduce re-offending and ultimately stop people getting hurt. The meetings were voluntary and positive, giving an opportunity for officers to show that we understand the value of diversion and not just enforcement and prosecution.

“Young black males were not specifically targeted in any way. Street violence in the capital however does disproportionately affect boys and young men, particularly of African-Caribbean heritage. We would therefore expect to see this reflected in who we visited. It would simply be wrong of us to decide not to engage with someone and offer opportunities based on their ethnicity and heritage.”

But the Green Party’s Caroline Russel, who sits on the Mayor’s Police and Crime Committee, told Liberty: “The data shows worrying disproportionality and appears to be yet another example of the Met treating young Black people unfairly.

“It doesn’t seem credible that the young people involved are supposed to be some of the ‘most violent offenders in London’, given that well over half of them are 18 or under, and so many are under 16.”