Met Police introduce Discrimination Investigation Unit

Detective Inspector Lily Benbow has introduced the Met’s Discrimination Investigation Unit (DIU).

They are a small team of specialist investigators who work within the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS).

Their role is to investigate or provide oversight into all discrimination, victimisation, bullying and harassment (DVBH) allegations for public complaints, conduct matters and matters arising from Employment Tribunals and the Grievance procedure in relation to police officers and police staff within the Metropolitan Police Service.

For example, if a police officer makes an allegation about a fellow officer being sexist, then we would investigate this. Equally we also investigate if a member of public makes a DVBH allegation about a police officer or police staff member. We also provide specialist support to localised Professional Standard Units who hold misconduct investigations in relation to DVBH allegations.

The DIU was formed in response to a report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in September 2016 which looked into how the Met managed internal complaints of discrimination.