Black PCSOs 'were treated like dogs at apartheid police station'

A CULTURE of racism and bullying was rife for years at a London police station, a tribunal heard today.

Police community support officers were "treated like dogs" by two white PCSOs, it was alleged.

The hearing was told that one officer said "stick by me and we will bring down all the lazy blacks one by one". PCSOs from ethnic minorities were followed by colleagues in police vans to intimidate them and one officer frequently kicked homeless people as they slept.

The allegations came at the tribunal of Muslim officer Asad Saeed, 35, who said that Belgravia station had an "apartheid culture" in which there were separate vans for black and white PCSOs.

Mr Saeed is bringing a racial discrimination case against the Met after he was sacked in what he claims was a conspiracy by racist officers. He was reinstated later. PCSO Geoffrey Whitehead, who is alleged to have made the "lazy blacks" remark, would have faced a gross misconduct charge if he had not resigned, the tribunal heard.

A report last August by a sergeant brought in to examine complaints at the station, supports Mr Saeed's claims against Whitehead.

The tribunal heard the Management Investigation Report into the security team at Belgravia concluded PCSO Whitehead had "unlawfully discriminated against other members of staff on the grounds of race by refusing to allow black colleagues onto marked police vehicles when he was the driver".

The report also supports Mr Saeed's claim that separate vans had been in existence since 2003. The Central London Tribunal heard that Whitehead was also alleged to have kicked two female PCSOs. Royston Upson, the other white officer at the centre of the racism allegations, was suspended last year and would have faced similar disciplinary actions had he not resigned.

Mr Saeed, who joined the Met in 2007, said: "There were obviously racial tensions. The whites all sat together on the opposite side of the table to the ethnic minorities."

PCSO Peter Campbell, 48, said he also witnessed racism and abusive behaviour at Belgravia station.

He said once in 2007 black and ethnic minority PCSOs were left to man a police cordon in the middle of a stormy night while white colleagues watched TV indoors. The PCSO said: "We were treated like dogs that night."

Mr Campbell said other officers played "spot the PCSO" and followed ethnic minority staff at night. "The joke was that all PCSOs had black or brown skin colour so they were very hard to see in the dark." Mr Campbell said if his colleague had not blown the whistle the racism would have continued.

The hearing continues.