Police anti-racism document 'gives wrong impression', minister says

Gives the wrong impression, Police Minister Sarah Jones said as forces' chiefs promise to update the guidelines in the aftermath of Henry Nowak's assassination.

Jones said in a bodycam video showing officers handcuffing the 18-year-old student in Southampton last December as he said, 'I can't breathe' – after his attacker, Vickrum Digwa, denied he was a victim of a racist assault.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is looking at a National Police Chiefs' Council paper that states the aim is to

produce equality of policing outcomes. Does not mean treating everyone 'the same' or going 'colour blind.

This particular paper is sort of a values document, it's a short document, and I don't think it forms the basis of any training or any police activity,

Jones told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.

"It is an official NPCC paper, yes, and it is being investigated. We suspect the spelling is incorrect and gives the wrong impression, but I don't think it has a lot to do with how our training is carried out.

"People are entitled to ask questions after such a traumatic occurrence, and we'll be listening and learning the lessons, and there's a tradition. When you are educated, there is a sense of bigotry in policing, which is incorporated in the police picture.

Digwa was sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in jail for stabbing Nowak, a chap from Chafford Hundred in Essex, as he returned to his student accommodation.

Hundreds of protesters have protested the way the Hampshire Police treated the case in Southampton on Tuesday evening, with Jones announcing that two officers had been arrested.

A police officer can be seen asking Nowak: You've been stabbed. Whereabouts? a bodycam video shows. Don't think you have, the narrator says.

Nowak says, 'I can't breathe,' several times while being handcuffed.

Nowak, who seems to be unresponsive, is told he is being arrested for assault later in the video.

Judge William Mousley KC said in his sentencing remarks on Monday that no matter how quickly Nowak had received first aid, CPR, or specialist medical care, he would not have recovered because of his injuries.

Jones, who appeared on BBC Breakfast, called for calm and said it was "important to point out that there is a long and rich tradition of bigotry in policing that we must acknowledge."

The black community is the least confident in our country's policing, they are underrepresented in the police service, and they are more likely to be exposed to police use of force,

says the police chief, so we must accept that and that is a critical piece of preparation.

The Police Anti-Racism Commitment of the National Police Committ was launched last year in response to the company's 2022 Police Race

According to the pledge, racial justice will be "providing equality of policing outcomes for people from various ethnic groups by responding to individuals and groups according to their specific needs, circumstances, and experiences.

It does not mean treating everyone' the same or being

"colour blind" (racial equality).

Beyond the NPCC's role, Jones said that police are being taught to recognise the past of racial inequity and "the challenges and challenges that have existed in the past.

"As part of the education, there is a component of the programme that recognises that there is no such thing as a result of a history of bigotry.

Jones said she was unaware that there was no prohibition on what happened to Nowak and said it was part of the IOPC investigation to get all the truth.

Three of the officers involved are still serving, and one has resigned, according to a spokesperson for Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary.

Donna Jones, Hampshire's police and crime commissioner, has requested a report into the police department's culture and effectiveness, as well as the training of officers responding to the stabbing.

Moga Singh, 52, and his brother Gurpreet, 27, were arrested on weapons charges on Tuesday afternoon and released on unconditional bail.

Kiran Kaur, 53, was found guilty of assisting an inmate when she tried to conceal the knife used in the assault. She will be sentenced on 17 July.