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HeadlineNew police database will 'repeat racial harms', campaigners warn

Short HeadlineCampaigners: Met Police set to repeat racial harms

StandfirstThe Metropolitan Police have overhauled the controversial Gangs Violence Matrix (GVM) with a new system, but campaigners say that the updated approach will repeat harms.

Racial harms embedded in a scrapped Metropolitan Police database are “set to be repeated” by its successor, human rights organisations have warned.

The Metropolitan Police has overhauled the controversial Gangs Violence Matrix (GVM).

In 2023, there were 496 people who were listed on the GVM, of which 82% were Black or from an ethnic minority.

In light of these figures, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist says the police have decided to stop using the Gangs Violence Matrix over “concerns about disproportionality”.

Now the Metropolitan Police have introduced the Violence Harms Assessment (VHA) system, after the GMV was subject to legal challenges in 2022.

But human rights organisations say that the new system could have similar issues.

Louise Whitfield, from human rights charity Liberty, say they “have serious concerns that the racial discrimination embedded in the Gangs Matrix is set to be repeated in the Violence Harms Assessment system.”

Paul Anderson, CEO of Voyage youth club, says that the Matrix has “always been a problem because it only focused on people of colour and young people, particularly black young boys.”

Awate Suleiman, a musician who legally challenged the GVM, says that “the Gangs Matrix was a relic of colonialism used by the Met Police to target people it thinks nobody cares about.”

“I’m disappointed that it’s been replaced by yet another system which looks set to repeat this injustice and continue to discriminate against working-class Black people.”

What was the Gangs Violence Matrix?

The GVM is a database used by the Metropolitan Police to determine an individual’s ‘propensity for violence’, according to 14 different factors including friendship groups.

The likelihood of being included on the matrix increased by 4.8 times if an individual was a previous robbery suspect and nearly doubled if the individual was Black, but the likelihood halved if the individual was Asian.

The risk-assessment tool was created in 2011 after violent riots in London.

In the days following the riots, then Prime Minister David Cameron declared a ‘concerted, all-out war on gangs and gang culture’, blaming gangs for the rioting.

Individuals listed on the matrix, known as ‘gang nominals’, are ranked according to the level of risk or harm they present to society and are categorised accordingly.

Why was the GVM controversial?

The GVM was the subject of substantial controversy and scrutiny from Amnesty International, Liberty and Unjust UK.

A legal challenge was made against the Metropolitan Police by UNJUST UK and musician Awate Suleiman for breaching the privacy of listed individuals after Police would not disclose whether Mr Suleiman featured on the list.

Campaigners were also seriously concerned with the over representation of young Black males on the list.

In October 2022, the Met conducted a review of GVM data and admitted that the Matrix had an “unacceptably high” rate of racial disproportionality given that 79% were black in 2022.

After the review, the Met were “committed to the complete redesign of the Gangs Violence Matrix”, according to Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist.

GVM Scrapped

Following legal challenges from UNJUST UK and Awate Suleiman, the Metropolitan Police have said that the GVM will “no longer exist”.

Though, the Matrix has seen a sharp decline in the number of listed individuals to 496 in 2023, the Police have said they will delete data within three months.

Assistant Commissioner Twist says they “spent the past year engaging with community members and relevant stakeholders, to ensure we have complete transparency about our new approach to tackling the most violent and harmful offenders in London.”

Katrina Ffrench, founder of UNJUST UK, says “the Gangs Matrix was an unlawful tool the Met used to track young Black men and children for more than a decade, and it’s right that it has finally been scrapped.

“The State has a duty to uphold human rights and through the Gangs Matrix, it has massively failed in doing that.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan says that the new VHA system would not focus on gangs as “community members felt violence overall was the overwhelming concern, rather than street gang violence in isolation.”

A better update?

London Mayor Sadiq Khan says that the new VHA system would not focus on gangs as “community members felt violence overall was the overwhelming concern, rather than street gang violence in isolation.”

The new approach aims to become more evidence-based and data driven according to Assistant Commissioner Twist.

But Paul Anderson, says that ” Police evidence has always been a question… as it always tends to reflect the stereotype [police] have in mind.”

Though the new approach has been rolled out, “the real differences are yet to emerge” says Simon Harding Director of Centre for Gang Violence.

Katrina Ffrench says “the Met must not repeat the same mistakes by bringing in yet another system that treats Black people unequally and unfairly.”