A police race watchdog has claimed forces' anti-racism efforts have not gone fair enough amid a row over two-tier policing in Britain.
Abimbola Johnson, who chaired a scrutiny board overseeing police race action plans, said her organisation had repeatedly found progress in tackling racism to be "too slow, too inconsistent and too poorly embedded".
The barrister warned that the political row surrounding the murder of Henry Nowak risked undermining improvements in policing if reforms were misrepresented as giving ethnic minorities "preferential treatment" over white Britons.
Her intervention comes amid growing pressure on police chiefs over race guidance that has sparked accusations of two-tier policing in Britain.
The 18-year-old university student was fatally stabbed five times by Vickram Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man who falsely accused his victim of racial abuse.
Mr Nowak was subsequently arrested and handcuffed by officers as he lay dying on the streets of Southampton.
The case triggered criticism of National Police Chiefs' Council guidance committing forces to "racial equity" while stating that this does not mean "treating everyone the same or being colour blind".
Policing Minister Sarah Jones has described the wording as "wrong".
Police chiefs have since agreed to review the guidance following political pressure and public criticism over the handling of the case.
Ms Johnson rejected claims that improving policing outcomes for black communities comes at the expense of white people, describing the notion as "false and dangerous".
"People of all colours, classes and creeds experience bad policing and poor state decision-making," she said.
The watchdog chair accused Reform UK of attempting to pit communities against one another by suggesting that addressing concerns raised by ethnic minorities meant neglecting white working-class communities.
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She argued that the reforms advocated by anti-racist policing campaigners would improve policing standards for everyone.
"Better risk assessment, better use of evidence, better supervision, better scrutiny of force, better victim care, better data and better accountability are precisely the reforms that would protect everyone from poor policing," Ms Johnson said.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp blasted Ms Johnson over the remarks, saying it was "shocking" that she continued to defend differential treatment based on race.
"That is clearly itself racist. It is divisive and it's dangerous as the appalling treatment of Henry Nowak shows," he said.
Reform UK Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf argued the guidance demonstrated anti-white prejudice within policing.
"The notion that there is structural anti-white prejudice embedded within British policing is not just speculation or something Nigel Farage says, or something I say, it is literally on the police's own website, both Hampshire Police and British policing," he said.
Police leaders have described the document as a statement of values rather than operational guidance.
Ms Johnson said the NPCC was right to review the wording if it could be interpreted as instructing officers to make operational decisions solely on the basis of race.
However, she warned that "a review should not become a retreat", arguing that fair treatment does not mean ignoring different circumstances.
She noted that officers already take factors such as age, disability, mental health and vulnerability into account when making decisions.
Asked whether institutional racism still existed within British policing, Ms Johnson said it did, arguing the conclusion had been "repeatedly reinforced by independent review, senior police leadership and the data itself".
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