Challenging the Metropolitan Police Gangs Matrix

Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash

Status: Won

Clients: Liberty, UNJUST and Awate Suleiman

“The indemnity provided by Law for Change gave our clients the protection they needed to pursue their challenge against the Metropolitan Police Service’s racially discriminatory Gangs Matrix. In short, we couldn’t have done it without their support.”

Lana Adamou, Liberty

The Issue

The controversial Gangs Violence Matrix is a system which discriminates against BAME people, with Black men and boys disproportionately represented on the database. The case was due to be held at the Royal Courts of Justice in mid November. However, the Metropolitan Police Service has agreed to an overhaul of the list, with more than a thousand names to be removed as a result of the legal action supported by Law for Change.  At its peak in August 2017 there were 3,881 individuals on the database. The number has now dropped to 1,933 - the lowest since the database was introduced. 

Legal route for challenge

Judicial Review & Pre-action protocol letter: The case was granted permission by the court and due to be held at the Royal Courts of Justice in November 2022. However, the Metropolitan Police Service agreed to settle before the case went to court and agreed to an overhaul of the list.

The Outcome

Following a legal challenge backed by Law for Change, the Met agreed to ‘wholesale changes’ and a “complete redesign" of the database in November 2022. The Met have immediately removed more than 1,000 ‘low risk’ young men from the Matrix since legal proceedings were initiated. This is an example of the zero-cost, high-impact nature of Law for Change’s work. We support important claims to get over the line that otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

In a win for the human rights organisation and its clients, the Met admitted that the Matrix breached the right to a private and family life. Personal data of those on the Matrix is shared broadly with third parties – putting them at risk of over-policing, school exclusion, eviction, and in some cases being stripped of welfare benefits, deportation or even children being taken into care.

As of February 2024, the Met have scrapped the Gangs Matrix.

This case won the Sheila McKechnie Foundations’s ‘Best Use of the Law’ Award in 2023