The deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has entered the controversy surrounding the stop of a vehicle, on Sunday, containing the Labour MP Dawn Butler. Sir Steve House has defended the police officers conduct after reviewing the footage and surrounding circumstances around the incident. Sir Steve has spoken out against the “trial by social media” of the officers after the footage of the incident was released onto her social media account by Ms Butler.
Ms Butler accused the police of racial profiling because the BMW in which she was travelling in was pulled over in Hackney. However, Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Sir Steve is insistent that, based on what he has seen, the officers had acted properly, and it was “unfair” that they or any other police officer has had their actions promptly posted and criticised on social media, rather than being reviewed through official channels.
Sir Steve said “Officers expect to be scrutinised and there are existing, appropriate and proportionate processes for making complaints and for facts to be established, and on the occasions where there is fault unlike this case for consequences to follow. Trial by social media is unfair and damaging to individual officers and has the potential to undermine the role our communities need us to do to protect them”.
Sir Steve also said that he has discussed with Dawn Butler her concerns over why the stop was made but did add that she has not lodged an official complaint about how it was conducted. In addition to this he said :“Criminals often use vehicles to travel in and to commit crime, therefore officers will often check cars to see if there is anything that requires them to stop it and do further checks. The officers ran a number plate check on the vehicle. At this stage, the officers still didn’t know who the occupants of the car were, including their ethnicity because the car windows were tinted”.
Finally, Sir Steve did also condemned the abuse that has reportedly been directed towards Ms Butler on social media since the incident on Sunday.
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Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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