LONDON —
London’s Metropolitan police force
Met said Monday it had referred itself to England’s policing watchdog after
receiving a complaint over officers again stopping Portuguese sprinter Ricardo
dos Santos.
اضافة اعلان
The Metropolitan police said it made the referral to
the
Independent Office for Police Conduct “on a voluntary basis” in recognition
of “the public interest” in the latest incident, which occurred on Sunday.
“We await their views on how they may wish to take
this forward,” the force said in a statement Monday, which added that “a public
complaint” had been filed over the stop.
Black athlete dos Santos, a 400m record-holder, was
stopped in Paddington, near central London, in the early hours of Sunday.
He posted dashcam clips of the incident on Twitter,
expressing annoyance and accusing the Met of policing overzealously, after
seven armed officers had responded.
The force has said they stopped his vehicle amid
concerns that he was using a mobile phone while driving.
In an initial statement released late Sunday, it
added that armed officers who were on routine patrol had called for assistance
after the driver of a car failed to pull over despite indications to do so.
“The officers spoke to him about why they wanted to
stop the vehicle,” the Met said in the statement, which did not name dos
Santos.
“Following the conversation the vehicle was allowed
on its way,” it added.
The incident comes as five Met officers face
disciplinary action following a previous stop-and-search of dos Santos and his
partner, British sprinter Bianca Williams, two years ago.
Williams, a European and Commonwealth 100m gold
medalist, has accused the force of racial profiling following the July 2020
stop, when the athletes’ young child was also in their car.
The Met later apologized after she disclosed that
the couple had been repeatedly stopped.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct deals with
police complaints in England and Wales and has been reviewing whether forces
discriminate against ethnic minorities.
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