UK: Stephen Lawrence - PCA report
01 January 1998
The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) report into the Metropolitan police handling of the racist murder of black youth, Stephen Lawrence, was published in December. The report, based on an investigation by Kent constabulary, cites "serious shortcomings" by detectives in their first investigation but, predictably, failed to find "any evidence to support the allegations of racist conduct by police officers". The inability, of both the police and the PCA, to recognise, let alone deal with, racist attacks has been a source of complaint for some years.
The PCA report points to eleven "potentially fruitful lines of inquiry which have not yet been properly followed up" in what it calls "evidence of significant weaknesses, omissions and lost opportunities" during the first murder inquiry. These led to "subsequent attempts to solve the crime [being] misinformed. It also led to public explanations by senior officers about the police handling of the case which were not supported by the evidence."
Among the "mistakes" referred to in the report were:
* the failure to identify anonymous informers (although they were later identified by Kent police officers)
* Suspect identification evidence was available but no action was taken to prevent forensic evidence to be destroyed
* Rather than a "wall of silence" hampering police inquiries there was "considerable evidence" that local people had come forward with information without a police response.
* One key witness withdrew his evidence because of the way he was handled.
Unfortunately, the "incompetence factor" is all too regularly invoked to refute allegations of racism among the police and other statutory bodies.
The recent example of the death of Lakhvinder Reel, who disappeared for almost a week before his drowned body was found in the River Thames in October 1997, is a case in point. His death was quickly described as accidental by local police and it was only after an active investigation by his family, during which they produced posters, interviewed shopkeepers and searched the river bank, that it was revealed that Lakhvinder and his friends had been racially attacked shortly before his disappearance. Following the attack Mr Reel and his friends ran off in different directions - this was the last time he was seen alive.
While it is not clear that his death was related to the racist attack, and an accident drowning of the strong swimmer cannot be ruled out, it is clear that the possibility requires serious investigation. This is a fact that seems to have eluded local police whose conviction that the incident was a "tragic accident" has done little to reassure the Reel family, nor to uncover the cause of Lakhvinder's death.
Meanwhile, the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, chaired by Sir William McPherson, will open on March 3.
Report by the Police Complaints Authority on the Investigation of a Complaint against the Metropolitan Police Service by Mr N and Mrs D Lawrence (HMSO) 1997, Cm 3822; Home Office press releases 15.12.97, 13.1.98; PCA press release 15.12.97.