The Daniels report won’t solve anti-Black racism at the Met – but it offers a new way to tackle it | Keith Magee
The 30 Patterns of Harm report draws on evidence from within the Metropolitan police. That’s hard to dismiss, and gives us an opportunity for hopeWhen I first read Shereen Daniels’...
By Keith Magee · The Guardian Opinion
The 30 Patterns of Harm report draws on evidence from within the Metropolitan police. That’s hard to dismiss, and gives us an opportunity for hope When I first read Shereen Daniels’ report 30 Patterns of Harm , a damning review of anti-Black racism within the Metropolitan police , I didn’t feel outrage – I felt recognition. The report lays bare what Black Londoners have long known: racism in policing isn’t a case of occasional failures. It is structural – and, left unexamined, it reproduces. I also felt something else: the faint possibility of change. For perhaps the first time, the Met has chosen to see itself clearly. Following claims that the review had been “buried” , the service has finally published Daniels’ report and companion guide. What makes this different from the 1999 Macpherson and 2023 Casey reports is that it turns the lens inward. Those earlier reviews drew on public testimony and external critique, while Daniels’ analysis uses the Met’s own internal correspondence, policies and governance papers to expose how racial harm is reproduced through decision-making, culture and leadership. And crucially, the commissioner allowed it to be released “without dilution or internal sign-off” – a level of transparency that neither previous inquiry achieved. That act of honesty is the beginning of transformation. Keith Magee is a writer and academic and chair of the Guardian Foundation. He is a co-chair of the Black Community Policing Advisory Panel, through which he received a pre-briefing on the Daniels report and participated in early discussions around the Met’s response Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...