Former Scotland Yard poster girl who won race discrimination case wants £144k off new employer for same reason

A former Met poster girl who successfully sued the force for racial discrimination is now seeking £144,000 in compensation from her new employer for racial discrimination. Whistleblower Carol Howard, 39, has accused the Independent Police Complaints Commission of being “institutionally racist and corrupt”. She told an employment tribunal the watchdog frustrated inquiries in order to protect accused officers and the reputation of forces.
Ms Howard is a former firearms officer, who famously appeared as a Scotland Yard poster girl - complete with Heckler & Koch semi-automatic rifle - promoting efforts to protect London during the 2012 Olympics. The black officer quit the Met in 2015 after winning a £37,000 tribunal payout in a high-profile race discrimination case and went on to join the IPCC as an investigator the following year. Ms Howard, of Coulsdon, Surrey, is now seeking a further £144,000 payout for alleged racial discrimination and victimisation during her six-month stint at the IPCC.

She told Central London Employment Tribunal that the IPCC, while probing misconduct and racism, was itself riddled with corruption and discriminatory practices.
She alleged that some IPCC investigators secretly supported the racist police officers whom they were investigating.
She told the tribunal: “The white managers I worked with are not independent and believe that their duty is not to investigate wrongdoing officers but to protect the reputation of the police force concerned and its senior officers in particular. They are corrupt.”
Giving evidence, Ms Howard told how her initial application to work at the IPCC was rejected without interview.
But the single mother was successful in October 2016 after re-applying under her married name Carol McCabe.
She told how she threw her new employer into a panic when she changed her name back to Carol Howard on the police system.
Ms Howard said her bosses were fearful that hiring her “could be regarded by the Met as an act of 'revenge' against the police.”
She said: “I was treated as an embarrassment to them as my presence would annoy the Met and my visible presence may cause a meltdown.”
The IPCC banned her from working on any cases investigating the Met.
She said: “I am a diligent and professional person. I had done nothing wrong. Moreover, I was the victim. I was discriminated against and victimised by the Met. I won my claims.
“I believe that the IPCC moved to restrict me and hide me away. I was therefore undermined in my role even before I walked in through the front door on day one.
“Rather than believe in me, they believed in their own need to protect their reputation by not upsetting the Met.”
She said that she was later also sidelined from other major investigations.
She claimed that other black and ethnic minority IPCC officers told her they were also "treated differently" from their white colleagues and suffered from a “hostile working environment”.
She said: “In my view, the IPCC is an institutionally racist employer. It is therefore unfit to investigate claims of race discrimination against the police.
“It is corrupt and not fit for purpose. It is neither independent nor impartial. It protects senior white police officers.”
Ms Howard accused the IPCC of "covering up" the racism of a senior police officer in another force whom she was tasked to investigate.
She left the IPCC after it decided against renewing her contract in March 2017.
The IPCC was replaced in January by a tougher police complaints organisation, the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
It strongly refutes all the allegations made by Ms Howard and is vigorously contesting her tribunal claim.
She is seeking £144,000 in damages for loss of earnings and injury to feelings.
In 2014, a tribunal found Ms Howard had been bullied, harassed and victimised while serving as one of only two black officers in the 700-strong Diplomatic Protection Group.
Her £37,000 award included aggravated damages over distress she suffered at the hands of one colleague, who had been "malicious, vindictive and spiteful".
She quit the Met after 14 years' police experience.
Her latest tribunal, expected to last two weeks, continues.