Senior black police officer warns against reactive reforms after Henry Nowak murder

Andy George, a Police Service of Northern Ireland chief inspector and head of the National Black Police Association (NPBA), has warned that police forces risk making “not well thought-out” changes to anti-racism guidance following the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak.

George told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the move to re-draft a National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) anti-racism commitment was “reactive” and “very swift”. The NPCC said it was reviewing the wording of the commitment, which states that ensuring racial equality “does not mean treating everyone 'the same' or being 'colour blind'”, after opposition politicians cited it as evidence of unequal policing standards.

“For us to go forward and for the policing minister to say 'that needs to be corrected or looked into right now' – for us, when we've pushed for things that impact black communities or black individuals, we've never seen policing move as quick as what they're advocating for right now,” George said. “So, I would say it is definitely an auto-correction – it's very swift, it's quick – I don't think it's as well thought-out as it should be. I think it's reactive to the current swell that we're seeing in social media and across different areas of public life at the minute.”

Nowak was stabbed by 23-year-old Sikh man Vickrum Digwa, who falsely claimed he had been racially abused by the student. Digwa was jailed for life with a minimum 21-year term on Monday. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the police response. Nowak’s father Mark said it was “unbearable” to see how his son was treated by police but added: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”

Former Home Secretary Jack Straw, who was in office when the Macpherson Report branded the Metropolitan Police institutionally racist after the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence, told the Telegraph there had been an “over-correction” within policing. “Things were out of kilter at the time of the Macpherson report,” Straw said. “There was no question about that but sometimes you get reactions which go too far the other way. That's obviously happened here.”

Baroness Kishwer Falkner, former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said there had not been an over-correction but accused police of trying to “virtue signal”, which she said could result in a “breakdown of impartiality and public trust and confidence”. She also called for unconscious bias training in public bodies to be scrapped because it is “proven not to work”.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Wednesday, Baroness Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence, shared condolences with the Nowak family. “I think what's happened with him should never have happened,” she said. “And the police should be at fault for what happened on that night.”

Protests following Digwa’s sentencing led to violent clashes on Tuesday near the site of the stabbing. Eleven police officers were injured and two people have been charged with criminal offences. Alexis Boon, chief constable of Hampshire Police, apologised to Nowak’s family on Wednesday.

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to meet the Nowak family later on Thursday.