The most promising DEI initiatives I've seen succeed start with the actual work. What specific friction points have you noticed where inclusive practices either accelerated or hindered team performance? I'm curious which metrics revealed the gap between stated values and operational reality.
The way I'd put it is this: DEI teaches people to live and behave in a world that doesn't actually exist. They really, really don't like the one that *does* which is the one police officers work in.
DEI gaslights us. If you work in an area where 70% of the residents are from a certain ethnicity and 85% of the robberies are also committed by suspects of that ethnicity, it's galling to be told you're a racist for stopping and searching them.
DEI is also a belief system. I've been to sessions where people have been told to accept and 'celebrate' stuff their religion or personal ethics disapproves of. That creates friction and resentment, but the DEI contractors get paid. I was trained to ruthlessly tolerate. Not celebrate.
I'm sure there are genuine believers in DEI world who think it works. But I've seen too much grift and a classic gravy train.
Select, vet, train and lead people properly. The rest does itself.
Similar has been taking place in Education/Teaching. Worst is in government sector schools and colleges.
There were times at work when I (a highly educated adult with decades of classroom experience) was frightened.
These younger Cultural Marxist bullies were always working the bureaucratic system, proving that whoever they targeted was a danger. They could twist anything to make it seem prejudiced.
What an excellent piece of writing about an unknown (to me, at least) sector of society: the police. It explains so much about the attitudes that now lead to a posse of cops turning up at the door of the author of a few hurty words in a tweet. A real eye-opener, so thank you Domjnic.
Very interesting read (and I'm not police). It would be good if you wrote more about options to change for the better (as you start to do late in the post).
This is really interesting. Thank you for the information. I think DEI is complex. It’s both language and behavior. The language seems the least important to me while behavior seems the most important. How one acts and treats others seems more important to me than some aspects of speech, but not all aspects.
Fascinating post. I would expect this story could be told in a variety of western, English- speaking countries but you've also made it a generational tale. Thank you.
I really enjoyed your article. I'm a Yank, so in the back of my head there's the whole "wait, no shootouts"? As you might imagine the police are even more paranoid on this side of the pond. But a lot of this is quite relatable.
Hi. Yes, guns totally change the landscape. Firearms incidents are still rare, but in the early 90s, in the three years I spent on uniform patrol, I think I saw incidents involving guns (that weren't in the hands of police) twice. I did have a colleague who was shot though. We didn't even have body armour then. Now police firearms training has gone seriously tactical. If you want to know what it was like in Britain back in the late 90s, when I did a firearms course, you can read about it here. https://dominicadler.substack.com/p/cops-and-guns
If you work for the Equalities Commission your continued employment depends on you finding ever more inequality. There is no likelihood that such bodies will ever solve the perceived problems they are set up to address.
Does the literal policing of online content I keep reading about derive from this DEI cancer? Is the DEI related censorship really about reducing hate or is it about suppressing the questioning of unpopular government policies, like allowing unfettered immigration and trans aggression into women’s spaces?
After working for years for a multinational company, I would say diversity and sensitivity trainings were used as a cover for deeply racist managers and chronic sexual harassers.
Your comment that DEI training money would be possibly better spent on vetting more appropriate candidates also occurred to me. However, the actual reduction of discriminatory or harassing behavior didn’t seem the intent, because obviously firing or preventing of the hiring of the few bad actors would do far more than all the training sessions.
I knew one researcher in application development who had been to several HR mandated sensitivity trainings, but he was still an absolute dick. An operations manager had multiple DUIs, on company work trips, and an actual restraining order from a previous workplace romantic partner, who had complained about him officially at work, which resulted in little repercussions. Even more concerning was an HR manager who was fired, after reporting a research manager she found having sex with a subordinate in a hallway.
Dom, do you think that the problem with the diversity training in the Met was that it was trying to solve a problem that was not really there? Consequently it was disregarded as irrelevant by participants who already lived and breathed diversity, because it was vital to their survival as an operational officer. Or is that just me?
I certainly agree with specific cultural awareness information - the cultural background to so-called ‘honour’ murders for example, or the different cultures of specific Caribbean islands - would be useful in the Met. My recollection, however, was that the training was generic - aimed at people who had only experienced one culture, being advised that there were other cultures. It just was not relevant to the audience, serving officers and staff, who received it.
Hmmm. Big question. I think there was room for input on race and culture, to ignore the issues the police had would be wilfully ignorant. I think it was delivery. Like a lot of big organisations, the Met swallowed a pill prescribed by politically-influential interest groups. Add to that how the Government will usually appoint a 'simpatico' Commissioner (the job of the Home Office and Mayor, which is a clunky arrangement). Sir Ian Blair was the most-pro DEI Commissioner and set the tone for what followed.
And the bottom line? IMO these interest groups who influenced DEI didn't really like the police, policing in general or the sort of society we live in. Not really. They saw DEI as a social engineering opportunity for the society they'd prefer to live in.
And, ofc, it was also a massive opportunity for advancement, idling and attending conferences-with-buffets for a generation of shameless promotion-chasers. Don't care if it sounds cynical, because it happens to be absolutely true.
Brilliant, brilliant stuff & before anyone opines the comments of the (mostly) male, pale & stale - remember it’s just our lived experience of some of the most dreadful training ever devised & delivered to officers over the years. Leading for London came very close to pipping it.
The training assumed that we’d all been hatched in isolation, with no interaction with other communities that weren’t our own ethnicities. That we & we alone were the problem; and that we alone were the ones that needed to change our ways. The shop floor was to blame, as the problems magically disappear as the high & mighty climb the greasy pole.
One of the best exposés of the Diversity Training industry was by a Channel 4 South Asian journalist who picked apart the courses to find little benefit and dubious notions in the courses’ design & delivery. He then had a very interesting interview with Lee Jasper & the friction between the two became evident as the interview progressed. The journalist alleged that a fair few of those courses’ incomes led to Mr J’s doorstep yet produced little or no benefit for the recipients be they the companies or their staff.
But can I find that program to link 🔗 to..? Can I bollo…
Dom, I almost spat my morning coffee all over my laptop at the 'We're the Police, we hate everyone equally' - laughed so long and loud that the neighbours have complained.
I recall some DEI Training, can't remember what triggered it, too late for the McPhearson report but might have been. Anyway, someone had given me a 'Little Book of Calm' for Xmas and I took it with me and sat at the back. The visualisation exercise of walking down a beach, feel the sand between your toes, the feel of the sun on your skin etc. got me through the session without my head exploding with irritation. Being lectured on how racist, sexist (!) and whatever other name they wanted to call us used to boil my shit.
Stanford Beer said "the purpose of the system is what it does" .
The most promising DEI initiatives I've seen succeed start with the actual work. What specific friction points have you noticed where inclusive practices either accelerated or hindered team performance? I'm curious which metrics revealed the gap between stated values and operational reality.
The way I'd put it is this: DEI teaches people to live and behave in a world that doesn't actually exist. They really, really don't like the one that *does* which is the one police officers work in.
DEI gaslights us. If you work in an area where 70% of the residents are from a certain ethnicity and 85% of the robberies are also committed by suspects of that ethnicity, it's galling to be told you're a racist for stopping and searching them.
DEI is also a belief system. I've been to sessions where people have been told to accept and 'celebrate' stuff their religion or personal ethics disapproves of. That creates friction and resentment, but the DEI contractors get paid. I was trained to ruthlessly tolerate. Not celebrate.
I'm sure there are genuine believers in DEI world who think it works. But I've seen too much grift and a classic gravy train.
Select, vet, train and lead people properly. The rest does itself.
Similar has been taking place in Education/Teaching. Worst is in government sector schools and colleges.
There were times at work when I (a highly educated adult with decades of classroom experience) was frightened.
These younger Cultural Marxist bullies were always working the bureaucratic system, proving that whoever they targeted was a danger. They could twist anything to make it seem prejudiced.
What an excellent piece of writing about an unknown (to me, at least) sector of society: the police. It explains so much about the attitudes that now lead to a posse of cops turning up at the door of the author of a few hurty words in a tweet. A real eye-opener, so thank you Domjnic.
Very interesting read (and I'm not police). It would be good if you wrote more about options to change for the better (as you start to do late in the post).
This is really interesting. Thank you for the information. I think DEI is complex. It’s both language and behavior. The language seems the least important to me while behavior seems the most important. How one acts and treats others seems more important to me than some aspects of speech, but not all aspects.
Fascinating post. I would expect this story could be told in a variety of western, English- speaking countries but you've also made it a generational tale. Thank you.
Wandered in here by Substack's algorithm.
I really enjoyed your article. I'm a Yank, so in the back of my head there's the whole "wait, no shootouts"? As you might imagine the police are even more paranoid on this side of the pond. But a lot of this is quite relatable.
Hi. Yes, guns totally change the landscape. Firearms incidents are still rare, but in the early 90s, in the three years I spent on uniform patrol, I think I saw incidents involving guns (that weren't in the hands of police) twice. I did have a colleague who was shot though. We didn't even have body armour then. Now police firearms training has gone seriously tactical. If you want to know what it was like in Britain back in the late 90s, when I did a firearms course, you can read about it here. https://dominicadler.substack.com/p/cops-and-guns
If you work for the Equalities Commission your continued employment depends on you finding ever more inequality. There is no likelihood that such bodies will ever solve the perceived problems they are set up to address.
Does the literal policing of online content I keep reading about derive from this DEI cancer? Is the DEI related censorship really about reducing hate or is it about suppressing the questioning of unpopular government policies, like allowing unfettered immigration and trans aggression into women’s spaces?
After working for years for a multinational company, I would say diversity and sensitivity trainings were used as a cover for deeply racist managers and chronic sexual harassers.
Your comment that DEI training money would be possibly better spent on vetting more appropriate candidates also occurred to me. However, the actual reduction of discriminatory or harassing behavior didn’t seem the intent, because obviously firing or preventing of the hiring of the few bad actors would do far more than all the training sessions.
I knew one researcher in application development who had been to several HR mandated sensitivity trainings, but he was still an absolute dick. An operations manager had multiple DUIs, on company work trips, and an actual restraining order from a previous workplace romantic partner, who had complained about him officially at work, which resulted in little repercussions. Even more concerning was an HR manager who was fired, after reporting a research manager she found having sex with a subordinate in a hallway.
I think it comes from the same place, but isn't directly related. I'm referencing the topic you mention for my next article if you're interested.
I would be very interested! It’s confusing watching this unfold in the UK, from the US.
I think DEI makes racism worse.
Dom, do you think that the problem with the diversity training in the Met was that it was trying to solve a problem that was not really there? Consequently it was disregarded as irrelevant by participants who already lived and breathed diversity, because it was vital to their survival as an operational officer. Or is that just me?
I certainly agree with specific cultural awareness information - the cultural background to so-called ‘honour’ murders for example, or the different cultures of specific Caribbean islands - would be useful in the Met. My recollection, however, was that the training was generic - aimed at people who had only experienced one culture, being advised that there were other cultures. It just was not relevant to the audience, serving officers and staff, who received it.
Hmmm. Big question. I think there was room for input on race and culture, to ignore the issues the police had would be wilfully ignorant. I think it was delivery. Like a lot of big organisations, the Met swallowed a pill prescribed by politically-influential interest groups. Add to that how the Government will usually appoint a 'simpatico' Commissioner (the job of the Home Office and Mayor, which is a clunky arrangement). Sir Ian Blair was the most-pro DEI Commissioner and set the tone for what followed.
And the bottom line? IMO these interest groups who influenced DEI didn't really like the police, policing in general or the sort of society we live in. Not really. They saw DEI as a social engineering opportunity for the society they'd prefer to live in.
And, ofc, it was also a massive opportunity for advancement, idling and attending conferences-with-buffets for a generation of shameless promotion-chasers. Don't care if it sounds cynical, because it happens to be absolutely true.
Americans don’t respect the British police, and we don’t even live there. I hope Brits don’t respect them, either.
I’ve rebranded…
As ever Dom I hope you’re on the mend.
Brilliant, brilliant stuff & before anyone opines the comments of the (mostly) male, pale & stale - remember it’s just our lived experience of some of the most dreadful training ever devised & delivered to officers over the years. Leading for London came very close to pipping it.
The training assumed that we’d all been hatched in isolation, with no interaction with other communities that weren’t our own ethnicities. That we & we alone were the problem; and that we alone were the ones that needed to change our ways. The shop floor was to blame, as the problems magically disappear as the high & mighty climb the greasy pole.
One of the best exposés of the Diversity Training industry was by a Channel 4 South Asian journalist who picked apart the courses to find little benefit and dubious notions in the courses’ design & delivery. He then had a very interesting interview with Lee Jasper & the friction between the two became evident as the interview progressed. The journalist alleged that a fair few of those courses’ incomes led to Mr J’s doorstep yet produced little or no benefit for the recipients be they the companies or their staff.
But can I find that program to link 🔗 to..? Can I bollo…
Excellent stuff Dom, and if I'm not mistaken, not one swear word this week. Fucking brilliant.
Dom, I almost spat my morning coffee all over my laptop at the 'We're the Police, we hate everyone equally' - laughed so long and loud that the neighbours have complained.
I recall some DEI Training, can't remember what triggered it, too late for the McPhearson report but might have been. Anyway, someone had given me a 'Little Book of Calm' for Xmas and I took it with me and sat at the back. The visualisation exercise of walking down a beach, feel the sand between your toes, the feel of the sun on your skin etc. got me through the session without my head exploding with irritation. Being lectured on how racist, sexist (!) and whatever other name they wanted to call us used to boil my shit.