Henry Nowak's death raises more questions about UK policing and race

Henry Nowak's death raises more questions about UK policing and race 8 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Sima Kotecha Senior UK correspondent Reuters There were violent clashes in Southampton on Tuesday after police faced claims of so-called two-tier policing in light of Henry Nowak's murder The murder of Henry Nowak and the way he was treated by police in his final moments has prompted outrage and condemnation, and an apology from the police to his family. How could it be that police officers arriving at a crime scene in Southampton last December did not immediately rush to help the 18-year-old as he lay slumped on the ground? Instead, video from a bodycam showed police putting the dying teenager in handcuffs. Why did they readily believe the false claim by Vikra Digwa, a Sikh man, that he had been racially abused by the student he had fatally stabbed? A separate Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation into the officers' behaviour is ongoing, and it will be some time before we fully understand what happened in this case or whether it is indicative of wider problems in policing. Regardless, it has prompted another crisis in public trust in the police related to race - though this time, the questions are different. Henry Nowak was studying at university when he was stabbed to death It has also led some serving officers to question whether a series of scandals and highly critical reports detailing biased treatment of ethnic minorities by police have made officers more sympathetic to claims of racism than other offences. One officer told me: "We've had several reports about how racist we are in the last few years when it comes to black people and Asian people, and so we're very cautious when handling cases involving different races - and so what happened in Southampton is easy to see why. Maybe we're too cautious now." Another said: "We have such a hard job and we're always scrutinised. But we need to get it right. I just wish people got the pressure we're under because of the claims we're racist by those who've [written critical reports]." This snapshot of opinion should not be taken as reflecting the views of all officers, but others have privately echoed similar sentiments. The fact that police forces have been under pressure to address racial bias should be no surprise when the revelations of recent years are taken into consideration, including the failure of the Metropolitan Police to properly investigate the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. In 2022, IOPC found evidence of highly discriminatory messages being exchanged between Met officers. A year later, Dame Louise Casey's investigation concluded again that the Met was institutionally racist, words that reverberated across UK policing. In October 2025, a BBC undercover investigation uncovered racism at Charing Cross police station, as well as other discriminatory behaviour. There have been cases away from the capital too - for example, since 2022 ei