This archive report was first published on 6 July 2020.
On July 6, 2020, British sprinter Bianca Williams made headlines after accusing London police of racial profiling during a stop-and-search operation.
Williams, a 26-year-old European and Commonwealth 100m relay gold medallist, claimed that she and her partner, Portuguese sprinter Ricardo dos Santos, were targeted by police because of their race.
According to Williams, the police officers stopped their car on Saturday afternoon, citing that it was driving suspiciously. However, Williams disputed this claim, stating that they were driving down single-width roads and were never on the wrong side of the road.
Williams alleged that the police officers assumed they were involved in gang or drug-related activity because of their car's color and her partner's ethnicity.
Footage of the incident was shared widely on Twitter, with their coach, Britain's former Olympic champion Linford Christie, captioning it: 'Racist police aren’t just in America.'
The Metropolitan Police responded to the allegations, stating that they had reviewed footage from social media and bodycams and were satisfied that there were no misconduct issues.
Met commander for central west London Helen Harper said: 'I understand the concern when incidents like this happen and how they can appear when part of it is filmed without context.'
