Police under pressure to drop race bias policies after Nowak murder

Highlights

• Henry Nowak was arrested and handcuffed as he lay dying
• NPCC reviewing guidelines that say racial equity does not mean treating everyone the same
• Policing minister Sarah Jones says the guidance document is "wrong"
• Three officers involved in Nowak's arrest remain on active duty; a fourth has resigned

POLICE forces across England are facing calls to scrap race-based training policies following the murder of Henry Nowak, a teenage student who was arrested and handcuffed by officers as he lay dying after being stabbed five times.

His killer, British Sikh Vickrum Digwa, convinced officers at the scene that he was the victim of racial abuse. Digwa was jailed for life on Monday (1) with a minimum term of 21 years.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, which investigated the case, gives all officers mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training as part of a race action plan that promises to "understand the impact, trauma and history of policing ethnic minority communities".

Serving officers have told the Telegraph that junior officers are so afraid of being accused of racism that they "default to the safest option" when dealing with incidents involving anyone from an ethnic minority, which in practice means believing anyone who claims to have been racially abused.

Farage proposes an Equal Treatment Act

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage wrote that the murder should be a "watershed moment" and said Nowak had been "killed by DEI".

He pledged that a Reform government would bring in an Equal Treatment Act banning police forces from holding race action plans or promoting positive discrimination.

The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said it was reviewing its own anti-racism guidelines, which advise officers to treat black and white suspects differently and state that "racial equity" does not mean "treating everyone the same or being colour-blind".

Henry Nowak Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary

NPCC chairman Gavin Stephens said the council would "make changes" in response to "legitimate concerns" about how the guidelines were worded.

Policing minister Sarah Jones said the document was "wrong" and "not written in the way that it should be". A source close to home secretary Shabana Mahmood called the wording "clumsy", adding: "Everyone should be equal in the eyes of the law." Mahmood said officers had a "sacred duty" to police "without fear or favour".

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said Hampshire police had "serious questions" to answer, "not least how accusations of racism informed the decision-making in this case". Shadow communities secretary Sir James Cleverly said the officers "seemed more concerned with the accusation of racism than the pleas of a dying man".

Vickrum Digwa Photo: Hampshire police

Bodycam footage released after the conviction showed Nowak repeatedly telling officers "I've been stabbed", to which one replied: "I don't think you have, mate."

Hampshire police confirmed on Tuesday (2) that three officers involved in Nowak's arrest remained on active duty. A fourth has resigned.

It has also emerged that Digwa was arrested in 2023 for stealing knives from his Sikh temple but was never charged. The Conservatives said this was a missed opportunity and called for the police watchdog to include the incident in its ongoing investigation.