LONDON, April 17 (UPI) -- The Metropolitan Police in London has been considering "fast track" ethnic minorities to make its force more representative of London's racial mix.
The Guardian reported Saturday that the affirmative action target of having 25 percent of its police officers from the ethnic minorities by 2009 was set after the force was labeled "institutionally racist."
A quarter of Londoners are of ethnic minorities but the Metropolitan Police is only 6.5 percent ethnic minorities.
Met chiefs will soon meet the Commission for Racial Equality to ask for its advice and backing and if secured, it will seek the support of the home secretary, David Blunkett.
"We need to change the Race Relations Act so that we are allowed to positively discriminate," Martin Tiplady, the Met's head of human resources, told the Guardian.
"This plan is the one that needs the most work, it is the most radical and would have the best chance of success."
