True North: A Story about Values, Family, and Systemic Oppression
True North is the debut book of anti-racism champion and campaigner, Sal Naseem in which he documents his life, upbringing and values with particular focus on his career at the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC).
A high-profile name who many of us became very familiar with, Sal was a regular on the news, speaking up on high profile cases against police misconduct and racism. He always reflected authenticity and empathy when he delivered his press statements.
Then all of sudden, Sal wasn’t on the news as much. He was however ever popular in the DEI space as a voice of depth and understanding; he was also rapidly growing a following on LinkedIn. I have been aware of Sal while he worked at the IOPC and we connected online, collaborating on a few inclusion projects, but I had no idea of Sal’s back story and what happened to him at the IOPC.
“When Sal sent me his book, he warned me that the contents would be quite triggering.I didn’t expect to read it and feel as shocked and upset as I did at the way Sal was treated, his experiences but also the anger at the familiarity of the treatment that was bouncing off the page. ”
Sal talks about his upbringing in Kilmarnock and the racism his family faced; the impact that had on his as a child, and the vilest racism that confronted him in his senior leadership role at the IOPC. In fact, I completely recognised the scenarios of institutional discrimination, so much so that I saw myself as the protagonist in some of his experiences.
As Sal was the only person in senior leadership of colour at IOPC, you would have thought the he would be nurtured so that more people from global majority backgrounds could be welcomed through the doors. His work output and work ethic were excellent, and he led on high profile cases which resulted in justice. It was Sal’s work on Operation Hotton in 2022, an investigation into gross police misconduct at Charing Cross Police Station including institutional misogyny, homophobia and racism, that resulted in the resignation of Dame Cressida Dick.
Stop and search was another key injustice that Sal fought against. The disproportionality and use bias has plagued black communities for decades right back to the Windrush generation and the Sus Laws. Created in 1824, the sus laws were part of the vagrancy act. It basically gave officers the power to stop, search and even arrest anyone who they thought was suspicious. Hugh Boatswain an activist and poet from Hackney said “the problem with sus for us was that it was your word versus whoever arrested you… It was enough simply to be Black and in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Sal fought hard against stop and search. Black communities were saying how badly it impacted them but the problem was that the police just couldn’t and wouldn’t get it. The IOPC made 11 systemic recommendations to the Met police – looking at the fundamental flaws within the use of stop and search not least the racial bias. The recommendations also included issues around policing as a whole, from the use of excessive force, to taser to courtesy and respect. The Guardian described the recommendations as one of “the 20 most significant moments since the Macpherson inquiry, for Black and minority ethnic communities.”
When news broke of George Floyd’s tragic murder by the Police in May 2020, Sal was Regional Director for London at the IOPC. Sal wanted to put a statement out, but the Police did not want to. While Black communities and global majority communities were watching the footage on the news, upset and very concerned with what they were seeing, the Police did nothing. Sal said: “Two polarised binary positions were established, despite viewing the same incident. There, encapsulated the very essence of why the Met struggled so much with maintaining the confidence of Black communities. They just didn’t see what the problem was.”
The external Police actions were mirrored internally, and ironically by a body that was supposed to monitor Police misconduct. Sal writes about an internal toxic culture that exists despite various policies and protocols for professional behaviour and conduct. Despite feeling excluded from the senior leadership clique from get go, Sal persisted in delivering an excellent standard of work that led to weeding out corruption and unethical behaviour. He describes a culture at the senior level which was exclusive, including banter designed to exclude those not from a white male background, to the lifestyles shared on the team what’s app group. Even the backstabbing in the meetings was not the behaviour Sal was used to.
Luckily the resilience that Sal had formed from years of racism and hatred, as well as being nurtured by a loving family and his faith upbringing helped him to navigate the unpleasant and unwelcoming environment. He excelled in his work and had many successful outcomes in his cases. The cutting part was that the more Sal excelled, the more he was treated badly internally. One of his cases went viral and received positive external recognition. He thought that his peers and seniors would be happy, maybe he earned some respect for a doing a good job, but sadly that wasn’t the case. Sal said: “There was also a curious motivation to be putting me ‘back in my box.’ To fully evidence my point here, you only need to look at the IOPC Impact Report for that year. Despite my representations, to again recognise the team’s work, Operation Hotton is mentioned in passing only.”
The behaviour that Sal describes is a tactic to demean, devalue and maintain superiority over people from global majority backgrounds because of systemic and institutional oppression. Many of us recognise it, and have experienced it in the work environment. It’s text book behaviour and a control technique.
In another case Sal was taken to employment tribunal on a false claim, it was deeply unfair and he proved his innocence, but it took years of his life and traumatised both Sal and his family. However, it shouldn’t have come to that as the case did not have firm grounds, it progressed because the colleague had her ego bruised and was on a witch hunt, and the system allowed her to take out her vengeance. Sal says: “This individual did not get their way in the workplace. So they cried (literally), got attention and then complained, and when things still didn’t go their way? They stamped their feet and complained that bit louder. And the organisational, system response was to essentially put an arm round them and be seen to cater to every demand. Me, a brown man, and the most senior leader of colour in the organisation at the time, who at no point did anything wrong, was then put through the meat grinder to appease. Zero organisational thought was given to my welfare.”
Reading Sal’s accounts, it’s easy to see why so many people from global majority backgrounds are not represented at senior levels. Not only is there systemic oppression to get the jobs in the first place, but if you are in a senior job you have to effectively sell your soul, lose your identity, grovel to be accepted, and the reality is that you will never be accepted. In a system like this, the odds are always against you.
Sadly, the systemic abuse and toxic culture took its toll and Sal made the decision to resign. His health was affected from the continuous fighting and attacks, and these didn’t need to be physical in order to hurt, and hurt deeply. Even in resignation, Sal said: “my organisation was doing its best to finish me off. At my lowest, this was my treatment from that system I had given everything to. Which I had in truth, given too much to.” Most people are familiar with the glass ceiling metaphor, and when you can break through, it feels like you have made it. Sal, however refers to a glass cliff in which he believes that those that make it are constantly on a precipice, about to fall with no support from the organisation.
Despite the abhorrent treatment, for Sal it was still important for him to follow his ‘True North’ and this gave him resilience. As he fought for justice (which ironically his employers were supposed to stand for) the damage was inevitably reaped on him personally and his loved ones. However, the damage of not staying true to your values according to Sal is much worse. He said: “When I talk about the need to stay whole, I often think of an apple… Every time you deviate from the direction your soul tells you to take (your true north), each time you compromise, a chunk is taken away. The first bite won’t get you, but chunk by chunk eventually those bites will get to your core until… nothing is left of you.”
Sal describes trying to affect positive change as exhausting. It makes you wonder if the system actually wants to make things better for people, or does it thrive in the disorder and ineffectiveness of services. His evaluation of his experience at the IOPC was that the Met will never reform as the culture is too toxic. “If you were to ask me what I thought about the Met, I would tell you that as an organisation it is incapable of reform.”
This book really describes how systemic racism is firmly embedded, its deep rooted and revolves around power, control and ego. And if you try to fight it, you are gaslighted, ghosted and your mental wellbeing destroyed. Sal appeals for people to unite and challenge injustice, and to be led by their ‘true north’, because unless this happens, the vicious cycle will only continue.
True North is available now and serves as both a deeply personal story and a powerful call to action for change.
