London Metropolitan Police lower hiring standards to hit diversity targets, now hiring illiterates with criminal backgrounds

Despite a 2014 pledge to have 40% of the force represented by ethnic minorities by 2023, only 17% of officers come from diverse backgrounds.

London Metropolitan Police lower hiring standards to hit diversity targets, now hiring illiterates with criminal backgrounds
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The Metropolitan Police in London is hiring officers who cannot read, have limited English writing skills, and may have a criminal history in order to fulfill diversity targets, according to reports.

Despite a 2014 pledge to have 40% of the force represented by ethnic minorities by 2023, only 17% of officers come from diverse backgrounds.

Matt Parr, the head of the organization tasked with inspecting UK police forces, told the Telegraph that London, “which will likely be a minority white city in the next decade or so, should not be policed by an overwhelmingly white police force.”

In addition to having a majority white force, Parr stated it was also, “operationally wrong, because it means that the Met does not get insight into some of the communities it polices and that has caused problems in the past. So we completely support the drive to make the Met much more representative of the community it serves than it is at the moment.”

The push for a more diverse force however, has resulted in officers being hired who struggle to write up basic reports.

“They are taking in significant numbers of people who are, on paper at least, functionally illiterate in English,” said Parr, adding that the force was “recruiting the wrong people” and that the push for diversity has “lowered standards.”

Despite this, Parr noted that it's good that the Met is taking risks by hiring young black men who have criminal records.

David Spencer, the leader of Policy Exchange think tank and a former Metropolitan Police officer, claimed that the diversity initiative has reduced standards.

“There is a tension between volume, quality and diversity and something has to give,” Spencer explained. “Someone has to ask what is the most important of those three things and you have to be really careful because once you have recruited someone they are possibly going to be there for the next 30 years.”

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