Bianca Williams’s partner Ricardo Dos Santos has accused the Met Police of stereotyping black people as likely to smoke weed after two officers were sacked over their stop-and-search.
On Wednesday, Met PCs PCs Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were fired after being found by a misconduct panel to have lied about smelling cannabis while conducting a search of the athletes in July 2020.
The couple had accused the force of “racial profiling” after being handcuffed and separated from their son during the stop, during which nothing was found.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain after the officers’ sacking, Mr Dos Santos said he had never smoked cannabis and that officers had made it up to make their search more viable.
“I've never smoked in my life. I've never had alcohol in my life,” he said.
“For you to open the car door and the first thing you say is 'we can smell cannabis'... it's a tactic that a lot of police officers use for regular black people because it's a stereotype that they have that every black person smokes weed.
“But in this case we are both professional athletes and we had a child in our car. So again, I'm not going to have any form of cannabis, I'm not going to smoke cannabis with my baby in the car.”
He added: “It was an attempt to make the search more viable but clearly in this case they were wrong.”
Speaking about the ordeal after misconduct hearings concluded, his partner Team GB athlete Bianca Williams said she now feels anxious whenever she sees a police car.
Speaking to the BBC in an emotional interview, Ms Williams said: “It's just really hard, even just driving the car I'm always looking, I'm always on edge because who knows what they're going to do?"
"Who knows if they're going to follow me and pull me over without Ricardo being there.”
She added: “I shouldn't have to live like that.”
Five officers faced a weeks-long misconduct hearing over the stop, which was ordered by the independent police watchdog after footage of the incident sparked an outcry.
The officers told the panel they followed Mr Dos Santos in their police carrier over what they alleged was the “suspicious" nature of his driving.
However, Mr Dos Santos told the panel he had been targeted by officers because he was "DWB, driving while black" in a Mercedes.
Following the misconduct ruling, Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward said: "Honesty and integrity are at the core of policing and, as the panel has concluded, there can be no place in the Met for officers who do not uphold these values.
"Mr Dos Santos and Ms Williams deserved better and I apologise to them for the distress they have suffered."
He added that the panel's findings highlight they "still have a long way to go to earn the trust of our communities, particularly our black communities, when it comes to our use of stop and search".
