Police Face Secret Facebook Racism Claims

The Metropolitan Police is investigating allegations that officers used a secret Facebook group to make racist comments about travellers.

Concerns about the views being aired on the social networking site were first raised in April, a spokesman for the force said.

Some of the comments were reportedly made after the presenters of Top Gear were cleared of any wrongdoing for using the word "pikey", a derogatory term for travellers, on the TV show.

Responses from members of the group included statements such as "I f****** hate pikeys" and described the traveller community as "despicable people", the Independent On Sunday said.

It reported that the group, called I've Met the Met, has around 3,000 members and is an unofficial forum for both serving and retired officers which can only be joined after receiving an invitation.

Members of the traveller community lodged a complaint about the group with the Met in June.

Yvonne MacNamara, chief executive of the Traveller Movement, said of the comments: "The fact that they are potentially made by serving and retired police officers gives us no confidence at all in the Metropolitan Police's ability to both police these communities and to attract and protect its own staff who are from gypsy and traveller backgrounds."

The Met's Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS), which investigates complaints from the public about police misconduct, is now looking into the matter "in detail".

The spokesman said: "The group administrators have set the privacy settings for the group as "secret" but we understand it to include former and serving MPS officers among its members.

"DPS is assessing the information it has received to determine whether any serving MPS officer or staff may have committed any acts of misconduct and will also look to see if any criminal offences may have been committed.

"Should either be disclosed they will be fully investigated."

Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are protected against race discrimination under equality laws because they have been recognised by the courts as ethnic groups.