Sprinter Ricardo dos Santos ‘not surprised’ to be pulled over by London police for second time
By Matt Foster and Aleks Klosok, CNN
An athlete, who alleges he was racially profiled during a stop and search by London’s Metropolitan Police in 2020, says he was pulled over by police for a second time.
Ricardo dos Santos, a Portuguese sprinter, was pulled over early on Sunday morning while driving in Britain’s capital. Dos Santos had previously been stopped and searched by the same police service alongside his partner and child in July 2020.
In a series of tweets, dos Santos posted dashcam footage from his car of Sunday’s incident which showed the sprinter pulling over and several police officers then approaching the vehicle.
In the tweets, dos Santos expressed his frustration.
“Not surprised I had to go through this again. Whilst driving home last night 7 armed @metpoliceuk officers stopped me because they thought I was on my phone whilst driving. At their request I pulled over when safe to do so,” the thread began.
“After I stopped two officers ran towards either side of the car, one fist clenched banged on my window and tried opening the car door. Not knowing how to use a Tesla handle he took out his baton out of frustration ready to smash the glass,” dos Santos claimed in his post.
“Annoyed that 2 years down nothing has changed,” dos Santos posted.
The Metropolitan Police issued a statement posted on Twitter, suggesting that the 27-year-old failed to pull over in good time. The statement said, “We are aware of footage on social media showing part of a stop on a car.
“At about 04.00 hours on Sunday August 14, armed officers were on a routine patrol in a marked police vehicle. They saw a car traveling eastbound… and were concerned the driver may be using a mobile phone at the wheel.
“The officers clearly indicated for the car to pull over but it failed to do so and they called for further assistance. The driver stopped about 5 minutes later… and the officers spoke to him about why they wanted to stop the vehicle.
“We have since contacted the driver via Twitter to invite him to contact us if he would like to discuss this matter further.”
Dos Santos on Sunday responded to the police statement with another tweet, stating that he only showed part of the video as “the rest will be with my lawyer.”
In a further statement posted on the Metropolitan Police’s Twitter on Monday, the service wrote that they had “recorded this matter as a public complaint” and “referred it to the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct), recognising the public interest.”
CNN reached out to dos Santos’ representatives for further comment and was told they would not be making an official statement, but referred CNN to an interview he had done with the BBC.
“I put this video out because these things are very much ongoing … my intention was for people to actually see, and debate, and understand that even though the police have been put on special measures, nothing has or is going to change,” he told the BBC’s 5Live.
Dos Santos and his partner, Team GB sprinter Bianca Williams, spoke to CNN Senior Sport Analyst Darren Lewis in 2020 about their previous encounter with the police.
After the couple, with their then three-month old son in the car, were stopped and searched by police officers, the footage was widely seen on social media.
Williams said in that interview that she was going to have to teach their son that “he can be stopped by the police because of the color of his skin.”
Five Metropolitan police officers are set to face a gross-misconduct hearing into the July 2020 incident following an investigation by police watchdog, the IOPC.
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