{"id":642,"date":"2026-06-03T18:59:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T18:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/police-to-review-anti-racism-guidance-after-henry-nowak-murder-why-theyre-right-to-do-so\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T18:59:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T18:59:41","slug":"police-to-review-anti-racism-guidance-after-henry-nowak-murder-why-theyre-right-to-do-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/03\/police-to-review-anti-racism-guidance-after-henry-nowak-murder-why-theyre-right-to-do-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Police to review anti-racism guidance after Henry Nowak murder \u2013 why they\u2019re right to do so"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police leaders have said they will review anti-racism guidance<\/a> following the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak. Vickrum Digwa, his killer, was sentenced this week to life in prison. <\/p>\n

Nowak was stabbed five times and tried to escape his attacker by climbing over a fence. Body-worn camera footage shows him handcuffed by police at the scene, repeatedly telling officers: \u201cI\u2019ve been stabbed\u201d and \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d. In the footage, an officer can be heard saying \u201cYou\u2019ve been stabbed, whereabouts? \u2026 Don\u2019t think you have, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating the officers\u2019 actions. Hampshire Police have said that one of the four responding officers resigned last year, but not as a result of this incident, and that the three others are still serving in the force.<\/p>\n

Digwa, a British Sikh man, lied to police at the scene, claiming that Nowak had racially abused him and knocked off his turban. The police response has led to accusations of \u201ctwo-tier policing\u201d, and community tensions. Eleven officers were injured in protests in Southampton the night of June 2.<\/p>\n

It has also drawn attention to a document<\/a> that outlines the police commitment to anti-racism. It says that a commitment to racial equity \u201cdoes not mean treating everyone \u2018the same\u2019 or being \u2018colour blind\u2019 (racial equality)\u201d.<\/p>\n

Police Minister Sarah Jones said the current guidance gives the \u201cwrong impression\u201d, and that the wording needs to be changed to be clearer. The prime minister\u2019s spokesperson said that \u201cwe don\u2019t think the language is right\u201d, and backed a review.<\/p>\n

The guidance was introduced in 2025 in response to the 2022 policing race action plan published by the National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council and College of Policing to enhance trust in police, particularly among black communities. <\/p>\n

Part of the aim was to try and address existing racial disparities in crime statistics. For example, current data shows that ethnic minorities are disproportionately<\/a> stopped and searched by police. Yet this is arguably more of a political rather than operational policing agenda. <\/p>\n

The anti-racism commitment also states that: \u201cRacism \u2013 regardless of whether it is individual, institutional or systemic \u2013 is completely and utterly unacceptable, and has no place in our profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

It commits police to \u201cproactively identifying, understanding and tackling racial inequalities in policing\u201d, and \u201creforming policies and practices that lead to people from different ethnic groups being over-policed, under-protected or marginalised.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nowak murder is a horrific case that reflects a failure to focus on quality delivery of core investigative skills. The police should be delivering basic, quality service on the UK\u2019s streets. Arguably, their ability to do this effectively may have been hampered by the expectations and commitments outlined in the guidance document.<\/p>\n

A common sense reset<\/h2>\n

As someone who has been directly involved in race and diversity training, and critiquing<\/a> it for over 25 years, I can say with some justification that reforming policy and practice in this area can do more harm than good. Commitments like those outlined in the anti-racism document mean police may be over-compensating to address issues of social policy, rather than focusing on just getting the basics of investigation right. <\/p>\n

The first notable race and diversity policy and training came as a result of the 1981 Scarman report following the Brixton riots, which found the police were heavy-handed and needed to be more sensitive to community perception. Further racial awareness training was recommended by the 1999 Macpherson report following the murder of Stephen Lawrence, which found racism was at an institutional level and systemic change was needed.<\/p>\n

The changes introduced, broadly, put race and diversity at the top of performance issues, arguably often over core crime-fighting duties.<\/p>\n

Police forces were mandated to deliver race and diversity training, within which there was a push to tackle unconscious bias and improve community relations. The training was often unpopular with officers, and evidence<\/a> of its effectiveness has been mixed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 then required the police (and others) to promote racial equality, leading to an increased focus on recruitment of officers from ethnic minority backgrounds. The 2022 race action plan avoids describing the police as \u201cinstitutionally racist\u201d<\/a>, though a report by Baroness Louise Casey in 2023 found the Met police to be institutionally<\/a> racist, sexist and homophobic.<\/p>\n

The training in this area comes from a desire to try and improve public trust and confidence. But when policies are misinformed, it can backfire. Research<\/a> has found that some diversity training has conflicted with the reality of operational officers\u2019 experience.<\/p>\n

Henry Nowak\u2019s murder has exposed the need for a reset of common sense in policing, particularly around getting the basics right. Despite all of this training, issues like stop and search still disproportionately affect people of colour, and confidence in policing among these communities is still low. <\/p>\n

I argue that this is partly because of a lack of clarity over what \u201cgood\u201d policing looks like in the first place. The public wants the police to get the basics right<\/a>, consistently. Asking the police to focus on anti-racism rather than just investigating the crime in front of them risks undermining this goal. Police can\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t fix social policy \u2013 just the crime in front of them.<\/p>\n

Beyond training, many policies have been introduced over time to increase scrutiny, such as via Independent Advisory Groups. These are well-intentioned. But there is a risk that a climate of fear and blame can arise where officers might be second guessing the optics of their actions, rather than what is the right thing to do. Using core investigation skills, the police should be able to think and act operationally, without social policy interference.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

John Coxhead has received funding for research from the Home Office and police organisations. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police leaders have said they will review anti-racism guidance following the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak. Vickrum Digwa, his killer, was sentenced this week to life in prison. Nowak was stabbed five times and tried to escape his attacker by climbing over a fence. Body-worn camera footage shows him handcuffed by police at the scene, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}