Ex-detective calls for full-scale 'common sense' inquiry into police failings after death of Henry Nowak

A former Detective Chief Inspector has called for a full-scale "common sense" inquiry into the failings which led to the death of 18-year-old Henry Nowak.

Speaking to GB News, Dave McKelvey argued that British policing has allowed "political correctness" to take over actual policing of crimes across the country.

Mr McKelvey said: "Hampshire Police hasn't come out of this very well at all, but that's unfortunately policing as we see it now.

"We've seen it for years, policing going down this avenue with political correctness taking over."

The ex-detective stressed that the bid for political correctness has left senior police officers "not actually being police officers" and having no experience on the frontline of crime.

He revealed: "You've got a tranche of senior cops now who have never actually been police officers in their lives.

"They joined on direct entry programs, straight from universities, from other jobs, who have never done the job.

"They've never actually been police officers, never giving evidence in court, never rolled around the floor with a drunk.

"Instead, they're sitting there making policies that are directing the cops on the ground or at the coalface."

Mr McKelvey added: "And unfortunately, you've got those cops at the coalface that are scared.

"If they do one thing wrong, they're going to get investigated and they potentially lose their job or lose their livelihood."

Questioned whether there should be a "public inquiry" into the failings which resulted in the death of Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed after telling police officers he had been stabbed by a Sikh man, Mr McKelvey agreed.

He told GB News: "Absolutely. You've seen IOPC inquiries over the years, they tend to be worthless.

"The reality is it needs a really good look at with a common sense attitude and it needs to be looked at from the very top down.

"You can't blame the cops for doing what they believe they are being told to do.

"At the end of the day, you make an allegation of racism, you are going to get that investigated.

"If your house gets burgled, you're not going to get that investigated. That's the reality of policing.

"At the end of the day, the public wants the police to do a policing job. If you get burgled, you want the police to investigate it, and that's not happening at the moment, you've got this diversity taking over."

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Mr McKelvey also argued that alongside the failures surrounding DEI policing, the industry is "completely under-resourced".

He said: "I'm not sure you can blame it entirely on ethnicity or race. We see day in, day out with the work we do, policing are completely under-resourced at the moment.

"They've got a recruitment crisis, a retention crisis, and genuinely police officers on the ground are scared of what will happen if they do the wrong thing.

"And so you've got a situation that needs to be looked at in detail, and we need to get back to basic policing, core policing, the pallium principles."

Dabinderjit Singh, the Sikh Federation’s Chief Executive of Political Engagement has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Justice Secretary David Lammy and Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer calling for an inquiry into "catastrophic multi-agency failures".

Mr Singh said "serious questions" surrounding Mr Nowak's death have been left unanswered and branded the IOPC's investigation "entirely insufficient".

He wrote: "While criminal justice has been served against the perpetrator, the wider systemic failures exposed by this case demand immediate, independent and transparent investigation.

"A wider inquiry must establish why this critical intelligence failed to inform the responding officers’ risk assessments, and whether systemic biases contributed to the immediate criminalisation of a dying victim.

"A statutory public inquiry is the only mechanism capable of delivering accountability."