Paul Wilson
Paul Wilson retired from London’s Metropolitan Police as a superintendent after 31 years of public service. He played a pivotal role in the creation of the UK’s first Black Police Association and was responsible for a significant number of reports centred around the issue of institutional racism and police service delivery to black and minority ethnic communities, as well as a plethora of media appearances and contributions on the topic. As the first black British recipient of the Fulbright police fellowship award and the author of a report and subsequent oral testimony on institutional racism at the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, Paul’s authority on the subject is beyond question. Now, he uses his knowledge of and experiences with this subject to give a personal recount of the proliferation of and slow progress in the fight against institutional racism in British policing.
photos: Andy Martinez – Brixton police station yard
Paul Wilson at the London Conference ‘Race for Justice’95’ with Johnnie Cochran, lawyer for O.J Simpson and Milton Grimes, lawyer to Rodney King, the LA motorist filmed being beaten by police
Paul Wilson at his leaving ‘do’, in a Tooley St, London, SE1 pub in July 1983. He was to commence his training at Hendon Police Training College, three days later.
Paul Wilson with Civil Rights icon, Jesse Jackson, at the Congressional Black Caucus, Washington DC, May 1989
PC Paul Wilson, Hendon Police Training College, North London, 1983.
Paul Wilson giving the keynote speech at the Association of Black Law Enforcers (ABLE) Awards Ball, Toronto, Canada, May, 1995
Paul Wilson with Winnie Mandela, Soweto, South Africa, August, 2000
Chairman of the Black Police Association, Paul Wilson, alongside Home Secretary Jack Straw and Commissioner Sir Paul Condon during a plenary session at the BPA AGM Monday, 19th October 1998.
Paul Wilson policing the annual Notting Hill Carnival, London August 1999