The inquiry, meanwhile, was shown videotapes from an undercover police camera that showed four of the five using racist epithets, including one who talked of torturing and killing blacks. The Metropolitan Police, which for years rejected allegations by the Lawrence family that it was dragging its feet in the investigation, has had to change its stance in the face of the inquiry findings. Acting Commissioner Ian Johnston apologized last month to the family, admitted serious mistakes were made in the investigation and expressed regret that the police had ''lost the confidence of a significant section of the community for the way we have handled the case.'' The commissioner also created a senior post of director of racial and violent crime to give greater attention to this kind of crime and improve racial awareness training on the force itself. But Sir Herman of the Commission for Racial Equality said the police force would have to pursue far more radical reforms to change its culture and eliminate an institutionalized bias among its overwhelmingly white members. Nationally, only 1 percent of police members come from minority groups, though they comprise 6 percent of the population.
Judicial representation is even thinner.
According to the Institute for Race Relations, Britain has only four black or Asian circuit court judges, under 1 percent of the total, and no minority members on the Court of Appeals or the High Court. ''When black people complain of a racial attack, the police don't take it seriously,'' said Jenny Bourne, a researcher at the institute. Civil rights groups hope that when the Lawrence inquiry is completed it will lead to major reforms of the police. The government, meanwhile, is expected to overhaul the Crown Prosecution Service, a move signaled by an announcement that the service's chief would retire early.