Actor Reece Richards condemns police watchdog over race decision on arrest

The Guardian

30-03-2025

The Hairspray and Sex Education actor Reece Richards has condemned the police watchdog for refusing to consider race in its investigation of Met officers who arrested and pepper-sprayed him.
The 34-year-old was walking home in west London last September after performing in Hairspray when a car crashed into a lamp-post nearby. Two white men fled the scene. When Metropolitan police officers arrived seconds later, Richards pointed out the suspects' directions. He said that, instead of pursuing them, an officer began shouting at him to get the ground and pointed a pepper spray at him.
He recalled telling the officers: ''I'm not part of this. I'm a performer. I've just done Hairspray, I'm Seaweed.' I tried to give him as much information about myself: 'I'm an actor, I've been in Sex Education.''
He also told them he lived across the street with his mother, pointing to the flat. But the officer, Richards said, 'saw me as a Black boy that is a part of this'. The actor said he began backing against a wall with his hands raised, and continued pleading, until two more officers arrived.
'I'm saying, 'I'm a performer. My name is Reece Richards.' I'm trying to do everything to humanise myself.'
He said officers shouted: 'Get on the fucking floor!' and tackled him to the ground. 'Three people on top of me, they're pummelling my hands into my back, pushing my head into the floor.' He said he was then pepper-sprayed in the face and handcuffed.
His mother rushed outside and told officers he lived with her in the flat across the street. As a crowd gathered, Richards heard people questioning his treatment. 'I could hear my mum … I begged [them], 'My mum has got high blood pressure. I don't care what happens to me. Just make sure that she's OK.' I lost my dad last year and I'm not trying to lose anyone else.'
Richards said he remains shaken months later. As a Black man in the UK, he explained the great lengths he goes to not be perceived as dangerous. 'You look at things that are traps and you try to navigate away from them … I won't make sure that my voice is as deep as it actually is, just so I can get through things without being judged … But, in this situation, I couldn't get out.'
Richards was de-arrested at the scene. He filed a complaint with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), but it said it found no indication of racial discrimination in the way that Richards was treated. But it is investigating the use of excessive force.
A report is expected this week.
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Richards criticised the IOPC for refusing to investigate whether racial bias was the reason for the excessive force, citing its own guidelines urging investigators to examine the context of an incident.
'They were doing everything to go around the racial thing,' Richards said. 'It was really surreal … for something to be so clear to me and for something to be so muddy for them. It's saddening, it's distrusting.'
His lawyer, Jessica Webster of Bindmans LLP, said: 'For Mr Richards, the IOPC's new discrimination guidelines seem little more than a public relations exercise, with the investigators in his case failing to follow or even appear to understand them.'
She said: 'The Met's institutional racism will persist while the police watchdog fails to hold officers to account.'
The incident also aggravated a prior injury, forcing Richards to stop working for three months, he said. It also left deep emotional scars.
'It's difficult to have the capacity to fully immerse myself in work now because things take me back,' he said. 'This happened where I live. Home represents a safe space, but now it's tainted massively.'
A spokesperson for the IOPC confirmed an officer would not be investigated for racial bias.
They said one officer was investigated for potential gross misconduct, while a second officer faced a misconduct investigation for their use of force and discreditable conduct.
The IOPC said it would also rule on complaints from Richards and his mother regarding use of force, conduct and alleged racial discrimination during the incident.
The spokesperson said: 'Our investigation is in its final stages, and we are making our initial decisions on whether any officers should face disciplinary proceedings. As required by law, we will then share our report and decisions with the Met which will provide its view, which we must consider before making our final decisions.'