Who – the protagonist
Commissioner Cressida Dick, chief officer of London’s Metropolitan Police Service (Met), the largest police force in the UK.
What?
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic last summer, London’s Met faced daunting challenges.
Met officers not only had to encourage and enforce compliance with lockdown measures imposed as part of the national response to the health crisis, but they also had to police a number of anti-racism protests that occurred under the Black Lives Matter movement, all while attending to their regular duties. Then the latest data was published on the Met’s use of stop and search during lockdown, bringing renewed scrutiny to their use of the power.
Why?
The Met’s stop and search approach has caused controversy for decades.
Some officers saw stop and search as a valuable tool since it allowed them to confirm or allay suspicions without having to first make arrests, and some believed that it provided a deterrent effect by making people think twice about carrying weapons or drugs.
But the use of stop and search had long been debated since the police consistently searched individuals from Black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, particularly young Black men, at a disproportionately high rate compared to their white counterparts. Some members of the public felt that officers were conducting many of these stop and searches based on racial bias and stereotypes, rather than on genuine suspicion of criminal activity.
Stop and search figures during lockdown showed that the Met conducted nearly 44,000 searches of pedestrians and vehicles in May 2020 – an eight-year high – and searched black people at four times the rate of white people.
Such statistics added to some Black and Asian Londoners’ lack of trust in the Met, particularly compared to white Londoners who reported greater levels of trust in the police.
When?
The early months of 2020 were a difficult time for both the Met and the communities they policed. When England entered a national COVID-19 lockdown, the police were called on to enforce compliance with the restrictions – a new and unprecedented responsibility. Morale was also low among the officers who had experienced years of rising policing demands but declining resources.
London communities were also experiencing the impact of the pandemic in different ways. In particular, early evidence suggested that individuals from BAME backgrounds had worse health outcomes from COVID-19 than their white counterparts, and BAME communities were disproportionately impacted by the economic fallout of the lockdown measures.
Where?
The Met is responsible for a population of more than 9 million people, covering 620 square miles across 32 boroughs in Greater London.
Key quote
What next?
Now in June 2020, after the first lockdown and a series of anti-racism protests, Commissioner Dick had to confront the question of how to sustain public trust in the Met’s use of stop and search.
Writing a case about the Met’s stop and search policy
“The broader issue of race and policing is one of the major public management challenges for city leaders in our time. As a school of government with a focus on ‘building unlikely coalitions’, we cannot ignore this challenge. In fact, we embrace it and try to address it in the very first term of our teaching.
“The London Met Police is a natural organisation to profile in this context, because it has made more progress on the matter than many other major police forces, but of course it still has a long way to go. And, to its credit, the Met was willing to engage with us on the subject, although they knew we would ask difficult questions.”
COVID becoming a popular case subject
“This is certainly not the last pandemic we will experience, and as climate change accelerates, large-scale global emergencies will likely become more common. Governments need to be adept at managing such events, and the lessons and experiences from COVID-19 will be invaluable. We would be remiss to ignore those lessons in our classrooms, as we prepare the next generation of public leaders.
The need for challenging case topics
“There’s certainly ‘debate’ in the traditional sense of what we expect in case-method discussions, but this issue is very real for many of our students. Almost everyone knows someone close to them who has been stopped by the police, even when they are innocent. How that exchange progresses has a lasting impact on their view of law enforcement and of the legitimacy of the state more generally.
“Leading a discussion around this case requires a great deal of empathy, sensitivity, and open-mindedness to ensure students’ lived-experiences are properly heard.”
Using the right language in the case
“In writing the case, we wanted to be particularly careful about the way we used language to ensure we maintained credibility among our readers. We also wanted to ensure that we included multiple voices and perspectives, both from within the Met and from external stakeholders, to provide a comprehensive look at a complex issue.
“In teaching the case, the key for instructors in any of these difficult discussions is to set the tone so that students feel they can express themselves authentically. You don’t want to chill the conversation by signalling that there is only one ‘correct’ approach to the situation. In inviting an open discussion, however, some people (students or instructors) might say things that can be misinterpreted. So, we ask for patience in advance, as we are all in the classroom to learn. We also remind students that when they hear something that offends, often the person speaking is not doing so from a position of malice but rather from an incomplete understanding of the facts. With the right norms, even the most sensitive of issues can be discussed freely, and the outcome often is to broaden our minds and make us better policymakers and public administrators.”
Producing the case as a team
Karthik commented: “I write cases on difficult managerial situations that test one’s personal sense of what is right and wrong. This is certainly one such scenario, but my academic expertise is not on race and policing.
“In this case study, I was very fortunate to work with Chris Stone who is one of the world’s leading scholars in the area. He brought a nuanced understanding of the academic literature that allowed us to make the case very data-rich.
“More generally, I find that working with a team of faculty authors means the case is less likely to reflect one professor’s idiosyncratic perspective on the matter. Here, having a team of well-trained professional case writers is also invaluable, and in that regard, we are very lucky at the Oxford Case Centre on Public Leadership.”
Sarah added: “It was extremely helpful to be able to discuss, develop and refine the case as a team. Chris' specialisation in the topic provided great depth to the material, while Karthik’s expertise on leadership helped us home in on the difficult managerial decisions at play. As the case writer, I tried to serve as the generalist focused on ensuring that students who may be unfamiliar with the topic could sufficiently grasp the story and its many nuances.”
The case
Who – the protagonist
Commissioner Cressida Dick, chief officer of London’s Metropolitan Police Service (Met), the largest police force in the UK.
What?
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic last summer, London’s Met faced daunting challenges.
Met officers not only had to encourage and enforce compliance with lockdown measures imposed as part of the national response to the health crisis, but they also had to police a number of anti-racism protests that occurred under the Black Lives Matter movement, all while attending to their regular duties. Then the latest data was published on the Met’s use of stop and search during lockdown, bringing renewed scrutiny to their use of the power.
Why?
The Met’s stop and search approach has caused controversy for decades.
Some officers saw stop and search as a valuable tool since it allowed them to confirm or allay suspicions without having to first make arrests, and some believed that it provided a deterrent effect by making people think twice about carrying weapons or drugs.
But the use of stop and search had long been debated since the police consistently searched individuals from Black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, particularly young Black men, at a disproportionately high rate compared to their white counterparts. Some members of the public felt that officers were conducting many of these stop and searches based on racial bias and stereotypes, rather than on genuine suspicion of criminal activity.
Stop and search figures during lockdown showed that the Met conducted nearly 44,000 searches of pedestrians and vehicles in May 2020 – an eight-year high – and searched black people at four times the rate of white people.
Such statistics added to some Black and Asian Londoners’ lack of trust in the Met, particularly compared to white Londoners who reported greater levels of trust in the police.
When?
The early months of 2020 were a difficult time for both the Met and the communities they policed. When England entered a national COVID-19 lockdown, the police were called on to enforce compliance with the restrictions – a new and unprecedented responsibility. Morale was also low among the officers who had experienced years of rising policing demands but declining resources.
London communities were also experiencing the impact of the pandemic in different ways. In particular, early evidence suggested that individuals from BAME backgrounds had worse health outcomes from COVID-19 than their white counterparts, and BAME communities were disproportionately impacted by the economic fallout of the lockdown measures.
Where?
The Met is responsible for a population of more than 9 million people, covering 620 square miles across 32 boroughs in Greater London.
Key quote
What next?
Now in June 2020, after the first lockdown and a series of anti-racism protests, Commissioner Dick had to confront the question of how to sustain public trust in the Met’s use of stop and search.
Author perspective
Writing a case about the Met’s stop and search policy
“The broader issue of race and policing is one of the major public management challenges for city leaders in our time. As a school of government with a focus on ‘building unlikely coalitions’, we cannot ignore this challenge. In fact, we embrace it and try to address it in the very first term of our teaching.
“The London Met Police is a natural organisation to profile in this context, because it has made more progress on the matter than many other major police forces, but of course it still has a long way to go. And, to its credit, the Met was willing to engage with us on the subject, although they knew we would ask difficult questions.”
COVID becoming a popular case subject
“This is certainly not the last pandemic we will experience, and as climate change accelerates, large-scale global emergencies will likely become more common. Governments need to be adept at managing such events, and the lessons and experiences from COVID-19 will be invaluable. We would be remiss to ignore those lessons in our classrooms, as we prepare the next generation of public leaders.
The need for challenging case topics
“There’s certainly ‘debate’ in the traditional sense of what we expect in case-method discussions, but this issue is very real for many of our students. Almost everyone knows someone close to them who has been stopped by the police, even when they are innocent. How that exchange progresses has a lasting impact on their view of law enforcement and of the legitimacy of the state more generally.
“Leading a discussion around this case requires a great deal of empathy, sensitivity, and open-mindedness to ensure students’ lived-experiences are properly heard.”
Using the right language in the case
“In writing the case, we wanted to be particularly careful about the way we used language to ensure we maintained credibility among our readers. We also wanted to ensure that we included multiple voices and perspectives, both from within the Met and from external stakeholders, to provide a comprehensive look at a complex issue.
“In teaching the case, the key for instructors in any of these difficult discussions is to set the tone so that students feel they can express themselves authentically. You don’t want to chill the conversation by signalling that there is only one ‘correct’ approach to the situation. In inviting an open discussion, however, some people (students or instructors) might say things that can be misinterpreted. So, we ask for patience in advance, as we are all in the classroom to learn. We also remind students that when they hear something that offends, often the person speaking is not doing so from a position of malice but rather from an incomplete understanding of the facts. With the right norms, even the most sensitive of issues can be discussed freely, and the outcome often is to broaden our minds and make us better policymakers and public administrators.”
Producing the case as a team
Karthik commented: “I write cases on difficult managerial situations that test one’s personal sense of what is right and wrong. This is certainly one such scenario, but my academic expertise is not on race and policing.
“In this case study, I was very fortunate to work with Chris Stone who is one of the world’s leading scholars in the area. He brought a nuanced understanding of the academic literature that allowed us to make the case very data-rich.
“More generally, I find that working with a team of faculty authors means the case is less likely to reflect one professor’s idiosyncratic perspective on the matter. Here, having a team of well-trained professional case writers is also invaluable, and in that regard, we are very lucky at the Oxford Case Centre on Public Leadership.”
Sarah added: “It was extremely helpful to be able to discuss, develop and refine the case as a team. Chris' specialisation in the topic provided great depth to the material, while Karthik’s expertise on leadership helped us home in on the difficult managerial decisions at play. As the case writer, I tried to serve as the generalist focused on ensuring that students who may be unfamiliar with the topic could sufficiently grasp the story and its many nuances.”
