DEI Is Killing British Policing: Think-Tank Exposes The Truth

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A think-tank has warned that British police forces are being hampered by an obsessive focus on diversity, equality and inclusion, with the ideology of "anti-racism" now set against the foundational duty to police without fear or favour.

Policy Exchange's latest analysis, led by its head of crime and justice David Spencer, points to the failures surrounding the Southport atrocity, the Nottingham stabbings and the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak as evidence of what it calls systemic distortion.

The report estimates that forces across England and Wales have spent at least £631 million on DEI measures and the Police Race Action Plan since 2020.

Police being 'hampered by too much focus on diversity, equality and inclusion', powerful think-tank warns, citing Southport, Nottingham and Henry Nowak killers as examples https://t.co/7PzgxJNRwf

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) July 26, 2026

That figure includes roughly £431 million on the manpower costs of training, £177 million on roles with a DEI element, and £23 million on external consultants.

Spencer is clear: "Police forces have sought to entrench the radical ideology of 'anti-racism' into British policing. In doing so some police chiefs have set policing against its own foundational principle - to act 'without fear or favour'."

He continues: "It is a modern-day tragedy that many of our Chief Constables simply cannot be trusted to resolve this alone. It's time to restore the principle of 'equality before the law' in policing. Nothing less than the fundamental legitimacy of British policing is at stake."

The examples cited are not abstract. In Nottingham, mental health teams assessing Valdo Calocane are said to have considered the "over-representation" of young black men in detention before releasing him into the community; he later killed three people.

In Southport, a social worker accused Axel Rudakubana's head teacher of racial stereotyping when concerns about his behaviour were raised - before he murdered three girls at a dance class.

And in Southampton, Vickrum Digwa stabbed Henry Nowak and then falsely claimed he himself was the victim of a racist attack. According to the account, officers handcuffed the dying teenager instead of treating him.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp urged that police "should cancel all this DEI nonsense and spend the time and money catching criminals instead."

He called the expenditure "a shocking waste of taxpayers' money and completely the wrong priority when the public rightly want to see more police on the streets tackling the knife crime, burglary and shoplifting we see every day."

This lands amid a string of cases that critics say expose the same institutional capture.

In June, officers from Hampshire Constabulary said mandatory DEI sessions had left them feeling "controlled and pressured to feel certain ways." Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman relayed their words: "Several serving and former Hampshire Police Officers have told me that 'we had it drummed into us about our white privilege and unconscious bias'. Training was outsourced to a third party company and the trainer 'was deeply hateful of white people and our culture.'"

Those same officers, the piece states, were the ones who arrived to find Henry Nowak bleeding out after being stabbed. Bodycam footage is said to show Nowak repeatedly telling officers he had been stabbed and could not breathe, with one officer replying: "You've been stabbed? I don't think you have, mate." He was handcuffed, lost consciousness, and died.

An inquest has been ordered because earlier investigations were found not to meet the state's obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Coroner Jason Pegg confirmed a full jury inquest will examine whether any act or omission by police officers, including the handcuffing and delays in treatment, caused or contributed to Henry's death. It is currently listed for September 2027.

Hampshire's Chief Constable has publicly denied the existence of two-tier policing, stating: "Do we have a two-tier type policing system? I would refute that. I would say absolutely not!" The report's supporters argue the bodycam evidence, the officers' own admissions about the training, and the pattern of similar incidents tell a different story.

Weeks ago, footage emerged from Birmingham showing a white teenager attacked by three males. A female officer moved to protect the aggressors and then arrested the bloodied victim, shoving him into a police car the wrong way while officers shouted obscenities. The attackers walked away.

Last year, Thames Valley Police and other forces were already putting officers through training that asked them to accept their "white privilege," confront micro-aggressions, and shift from being "non-racist" to "anti-racist." An independent review found the material created deep resentment; former assistant chief constable Kerrin Wilson noted strong frustration among white male officers.

Rory Geoghegan, a former government adviser and ex-police officer, put it bluntly: "Police officers and staff deserve far better from their leaders than to be crudely categorised by skin colour and subjected to reductive, divisive ideologies."

Policy Exchange's conclusion is that these are not isolated lapses by individual officers, but the result of policy choices made at the highest levels of British policing.

The pursuit of "equality of outcomes" has replaced equality before the law, the report argues, with the cost measured not only in hundreds of millions of pounds that could have put officers on the street, but in public confidence in policing itself.

British policing was built on the principle of policing by consent and equal treatment under the law. Critics argue that principle has been undermined by an ideology that treats impartiality as a problem to be fixed. The public can see the results, the piece concludes - the only remaining question is how much longer the political class will pretend otherwise.