When the British Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, published the Macpherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence two weeks ago, one of its chief recommendations was the extension of the Race Relations Act to the police.
The government stood foursquare behind holding chief police vicariously liable for the actions of their officers. But yesterday the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Condon, told MPs the argument for bringing the force under the auspices of the Act was not clear-cut.
Sir Paul told members of the cross-party Home Affairs Select Committee that not only was that argument "finely balanced" but moves to make it a crime to exhibit racist behaviour in private were unworkable too. Insisting he would not resist when the government proposed changes in the law, Sir Paul nonetheless fell short of welcoming them.
Since the publication of the Macpherson report, serving and retired police officers, politicians and community leaders have tried to answer the question of how best the police can rid themselves of "institutional racism". Most agree that increasing police accountability is the best way forward, despite the alarm expressed in some quarters that some police officers might be more reluctant to arrest people from ethnic minority backgrounds because of the threat of legal action.
The police were already working closely with the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) and Sir Paul said he recognised the need to improve his force's record on race relations and would therefore have no objection to the CRE being given more powers to investigate his officers.
The CRE refused to comment on Sir Paul's gloomy assessment, preferring to point out that regardless of the thoughts or words of the commissioner, Mr Straw had pledged the Race Relations Act would be extended to the police, ending an anomaly that had lasted many years.
Casting doubt on the chances of prosecution for racist behaviour in private, Sir Paul saw the proposal as a legal minefield, saying such legislation could contravene the European Convention on Human Rights: "I can't see a way in which this could be implemented. Legal moves seem to be away from rather than towards this recommendation. It will be explored and probably rejected as impractical."
The legal argument surrounding changes to the rule of "double jeopardy", by which a person cannot be tried for the same offences twice, had also to be "teased out" by the Law Commission. "My initial reaction was one of being troubled by it . . . after reading it through I haven't yet found a way through this that I'm comfortable with," Sir Paul told the committee. Mr Straw is known to share those fears, while the Lawrences' lawyer, Mr Mike Mansfield, has openly criticised the proposal.
The Assistant Commissioner, Mr Denis O'Connor, had a little better news for MPs, even if it did not appear very encouraging at first. On current figures, black people were 4.5 times more likely than white to be stopped and searched by a police officer in London. Taking into account demographics, that figure fell to 3.2:1, but in pilot areas where officers were being given special race awareness training, the figure had now dropped to 2:1.
Meanwhile, a report by the Office for Standards in Education in Schools published yesterday said many schools in England were guilty of "institutional racism".