Police squandered opportunities to reunite a missing person of colour with her family – not for the first time
- Dal Babu is a former chief superintendent in the Metropolitan police
Owami Davies has reportedly been found safe in Hampshire, which looks like a happy end to this harrowing saga. But while the family undoubtedly got the news they were hoping for, they are still owed answers about how this case was handled. Once again, a black family has had to suffer with grace through the disappearance of a loved one and the constant questions about whether the situation would be taken more seriously were they white.
The police should still be in the spotlight, and there are lessons here that they must learn. One thing is clear: the initial response by Essex police to the report of Davies going missing was not treated with appropriate seriousness. Missing persons reports are graded high, medium and low, and Davies was graded medium. Not unlike the initial report about the missing sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, this clearly should have been a higher priority. As with Davies, we might ask if the response would have been different if the reports had been about missing white, blue-eyed women, rather than black women.
Dal Babu is a former chief superintendent in the Metropolitan police
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