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Anil Kanti "Neil" Basu (born 1968) is a senior British police officer. Basu is currently a Non-Executive Director of the
College of Policing
The College of Policing is a professional body for the police in England and Wales. It was established in 2012 to take over a number of training and development roles that were the responsibility of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) ...
, leading the strategic command course which prepares police officers and staff for promotion to the most senior ranks in the service. Basu is also part of the National Police Chiefs' Council
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) is a national coordination body for law enforcement in the United Kingdom and the representative body for British police chief officers. Established on 1 April 2015, it replaced the former Association ...
's scrutiny board for police action plan on inclusion and race.
From March 2018 to September 2021, he served as Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations
The Specialist Operations directorate is a unit of the Metropolitan Police of London, UK responsible for providing specialist policing capabilities including national security and counter-terrorism operations. The Specialist Operations Directorate ...
in the Metropolitan Police Service, and the National Police Chiefs' Council
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) is a national coordination body for law enforcement in the United Kingdom and the representative body for British police chief officers. Established on 1 April 2015, it replaced the former Association ...
lead for Counter Terrorism Policing.
Basu left the Metropolitan Police at the end of November 2022.
Career
Basu became a police officer in 1992, and has spent his whole career serving with the Metropolitan Police Service. He is currently the most senior serving British police officer of Asian heritage: his father was fromKolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, India and his mother was from Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
.
In 2018, Basu received the Asian Achievers Award for Achievement in Uniformed and Civil Services.
During the George Floyd protests
The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internat ...
, Basu spoke out about racism in policing
Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the act of suspecting, targeting or discriminating against a person on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or nationality, rather than on individual suspicion or available evidence. Racial profiling involv ...
, stating he was "horrified" by George Floyd's murder.
Basu has stated he believes British policing is institutionally racist
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healt ...
, criticising other senior British police officers for their reluctance to agree.
Following the resignation of Lynne Owens
Dame Lynne Gillian Owens, (born 29 January 1969) is a senior law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom. She served as Director-General of the National Crime Agency from 2016 to 2021, making her one of the most senior law enforcement chiefs ...
as Director-General of the National Crime Agency
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and in ...
, Basu was one of the final candidates considered to replaced Owens until the Home Office restarted the selection process in May 2022.
Honours
References
1968 births Living people Assistant Commissioners of Police of the Metropolis British people of Indian descent Counterterrorism in the United Kingdom English recipients of the Queen's Police Medal Metropolitan Police recipients of the Queen's Police Medal {{UK-law-enforcement-bio-stub