Foreword
Police accountability cannot be built on community pain, unpaid labour and polite consultation. For many Black Londoners and other communities affected by disproportionate policing, the issue is not a lack of lived experience, knowledge or willingness to speak. The issue is that people have spoken repeatedly and too often, systems have listened without changing.
The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime’s Community Scrutiny Transformation Programme aims to strengthen scrutiny of police powers across London. That ambition matters. But scrutiny without power, resourcing and consequence risks becoming another managed participation exercise rather than real accountability.
Key Facts and Statistics
MOPAC’s 2020 Action Plan committed to overhauling community monitoring structures so communities could scrutinise wider police powers, including stop and search, Taser and complaints.
The Black Voices on Policing consultation, commissioned by MOPAC and delivered by Black Thrive and Psi, ran from October 2022 to March 2023 and engaged around 1,390 people.
Black Thrive’s published work highlights mistrust, over-policing and under-protection as key concerns raised by Black Londoners.
The Casey Review found institutional racism, sexism and homophobia in the Metropolitan Police.
MOPAC procurement material describes a Community Scrutiny Transformation Programme involving training, data literacy, volunteer scrutineers and an independent delivery body. Public procurement information also confirms that the model is largely volunteer-based.
Key Message
Community scrutiny is essential but it must not become community extraction.
People most harmed by policing should not be expected to donate their time, trauma and expertise for free while paid bodies, consultants and providers sit around the structure.
Volunteers bring huge value:
- lived experience,
- local knowledge,
- community trust,
- challenge,
- cultural insight,
- and moral authority.
But volunteers must not be used as a substitute for properly funded accountability.
What Needs to Change: Community scrutiny must be:
Independent: Able to challenge MOPAC and the Met without fear or control.
Paid and properly resourced: Community members, chairs and lived experience contributors should be compensated for their time and expertise.
Community-led: Black communities and other affected groups must shape the model, not simply be invited into one already designed.
Transparent: Findings, recommendations and police responses should be public.
Powerful: Scrutiny must be able to require answers, escalate concerns and track whether change actually happens.
Intersectional: The model must include Black women, young people, Muslim communities, disabled people, LGBTQ+ communities, families affected by police harm, and grassroots organisations.
The Contribution of Volunteers: Volunteers can play a vital role in:
- reviewing local policing practice,
- asking difficult questions,
- bringing lived experience into scrutiny,
- identifying patterns of harm,
- supporting community confidence,
- and ensuring local voices are heard.
But their contribution must be respected, not exploited. That means:
- payment or honorariums,
- travel and childcare costs covered,
- trauma-informed support,
- proper training,
- access to clear data,
- protection from tokenism,
- and real influence over outcomes.
Needed Action: MOPAC should:
- Publish a clear explanation of how community power will be built into the programme.
- Pay community scrutineers, chairs and lived experience contributors.
- Ensure Black-led and community-led organisations are not used as decorative partners.
- Create public reporting on recommendations and police responses.
- Give borough panels the authority to escalate repeated failure.
- Build the model through genuine co-production, not procurement-led consultation.
- Ensure communities can scrutinise stop and search, strip search, handcuffing, Taser, complaints and emerging surveillance powers.
- Measure success by change, not attendance, training numbers or meeting minutes.
Final Thought
Consultation is not co-production.
Training is not transformation.
Volunteering is not empowerment.
Scrutiny without consequence is not accountability.
London does not need better-managed powerlessness. It needs community scrutiny with independence, resources, authority and teeth.