Policing Minister Sarah Jones has rejected claims that the treatment of murder victim Henry Nowak is an example of two-tier policing but admitted that better training may be needed.
Asked if the treatment of Henry Nowak was an example of racial bias, she told GB News: “I do not accept the framing of what you are saying at all. My view, as Policing Minister, is that everybody is equal under the law.
“My view is that the vast majority of police officers who we ask to run into danger do so with professionalism and bravery, and my view is that the tragic murder of Henry, that is so difficult to watch, where questions have to be asked and answered, and action taken.
“My view is that we have to, because that is how this society works, wait for the investigation from the IOPC to understand properly what happened and why, and then to act accordingly, and that our policing by consent model is the right one, where we take that, always striving for equality under the law, that is the fundamental basis on which our tolerant society exists, and that is what we must fight for.
“My point is that it is not the answer to turn to division and violence, and I think most politicians, most people around the country would have that view as well.”
She said police guidance to officers on diversity and equality may have to be reviewed: “It’s definitely clumsy. I think it’s wrong. It gives the wrong impression – if you’ll let me sort of set out the wider picture in terms of training and the situation with policing.
“There is a thing called the Race Action Plan, which was introduced under the last government, which is about training, and it is about accepting that confidence in policing has gone down, but it’s gone down the most, and it is the lowest in the black community, in terms of the police workforce, there’s lower numbers of people who are black, and yet you are more likely to be stopped and searched.
“For example, if you’re black, there is a history of racism in policing that we need to acknowledge. We all remember from the murder of Stephen Lawrence, and what happened after that as a case in point, so there is an important history here, which is important to make sure the police understand that is different from this document, which is a sort of values document, which I think is clumsy. I think it’s wrong, it gives the wrong impression.
“Everyone is equal under the law, that is the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, everybody is, I would think probably everyone’s view across the country, we have to make sure that is always the case, and I think in the vast majority of cases the police respond in the right way.
“When you are, and you would have been in response cars, when you are going to a response situation, it’s you get the information on the radio, it’s very high tension, you don’t know what you’re running into, the training you get is incredibly important, so that you can make the right decisions.
“It looks to everybody that those right decisions weren’t made in Henry’s case, and we need to understand why, and we need to act accordingly once the IOPC has investigated.”
