Met Police told to 'get a grip' by black officer Gamal Turawa whose face was painted white

'You’re the wrong colour to be in this job,' Gamal was told

A black Met Police officer whose face was painted white with shoe polish said the force needed to 'get a grip' on its problems after scathing criticism in the Casey report.

Gamal Turawa served with the Met for 25 years and was the force's first openly gay black officer.

Speaking to ITV News, Gamal gave disturbing detail of how he was made to fit in at police training college in north London in the 1960s.

"When I first started at the police college in Hendon, one of the things about police culture is you have to fit in and you have to be part of the culture," Gamal explained.

"And that pressure to fit in can be very overwhelming. When I started at Hendon (police training college) I wanted to fit in.

"There were some good people, but also people who would make sarcastic remarks about my colour and about me being there.

"It was very uncomfortable and I remember going to see a sergeant one day and spent 45 minutes talking to him about how I felt.

"At the end of it he said ‘Do you know what your problems is? You’ve got a chip on your shoulder!’" he added.

Gamal explained how there was a knock on the door one night while he was studying in his room at police college.

When he answered some trainee officers came in laughing and joking and one grabbed a tube of shoe polish.

"One of them said you’re the wrong colour to be in this job," Gamal said.

"And there was some shoe whitener on the shelf which he took down and painted me white and he said ‘now you fit in!’

"I let them do it because I felt that’s what I needed to do to fit and and belong. We looked at it at the time like we were just having a laugh.

"But when I look back now I see how desperate I was to fit into the group. No body wants to be an outsider," he added.

Mr Turawa retired as an officer from the Met Police in 2018 and believes there are "a lot of good cops" but more should speak out against racist officers.

He was frustrated to hear the same conversations in 2023 that he experienced back in the 1990s and said the Casey report should mark a turning point.

He added: "The Met has to learn to listen and not be defensive. One of the things Baroness Casey said in her report which I recognised what the organisation tends to become defensive.

"And as long as it’s in that defensive place they won’t understand the problems.

"There will be lots of stories now about how brave and good some officers are. And if the Met cares so much about its reputation why are they not dealing with this stuff properly?"

Baroness Casey found Britain’s largest police force was institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic, in her damning review.

She said police failed to protect the public from police officers who abuse women, organisational changes have put women and children at greater risk, and female officers and staff routinely experience sexism, the report said.

There were racist officers and staff in the force and a "deep-seated homophobia" exists in the organisation.

Gamal Turawa said the main problem did not lie with the Met's leadership but it's 'canteen culture'.

"That’s where a lot of this stuff sits. The leadership are not in the canteens," he said.

"You have to retrain middle management, they are the ones who have the influence on the frontline," he added.

Gamal said the Met changing its name would not do much to change the culture and pointed out it had already switched from the Metropolitan Police Force to the Metropolitan Police Service.

"That did not change the culture," he said.

"The Met needs to be monitored externally every six months and anyone who is expecting it to change overnight is living in cloud cuckoo land.

"It’s not about solving a problem it’s about evolving a culture. Everyone is expecting everything to be solved within the next couple months. It’s not going to happen," he added.

Several hundred officers are expected to be dismissed from the Met Police over the coming months.

Addressing the London Assembly Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said he and the force's new leadership team were “galvanising” the service and hoped the findings of Baroness Louise Casey’s damning review “acted as a catalyst”.

Commissioner Rowley said: "I’ve already apologised to the people of London and those in the organisation who we’ve let down. And I’ve repeated that over the last couple of days that I do recognise that."

The report "calls out discrimination in the organisation", not just individuals, but "also the systemic failings within it, the management failings and the cultural failings", he said, adding: "I welcome the findings and hope it acts as a catalyst."

Sir Mark said he and senior leaders have been through a “bit of a rollercoaster of emotions” as they digested the findings, including anger, frustration, embarrassment and being upset but also more “positive emotions” because it “redoubles your intent and your resolve”.

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