The category of non-crime hate incidents is no longer fit for purpose and could be scrapped under plans to be presented to the home secretary.
A review by police leaders will call for non-crime hate incidents to be replaced with a new “commonsense” system, the Telegraph reports. Under the new scheme, only the most serious incidents would be recorded as antisocial behaviour.
Non-crime hate incidents are those perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards people because of certain characteristics, such as race or gender, but that do not meet the threshold of a criminal offence.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing will publish their review next month, which will then be given to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood.
The review was announced after the Metropolitan police said in October that they would no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents.
It also followed the Father Ted creator Graham Linehan discovering he would face no further action over social media posts he had made about transgender issues, after he was arrested at Heathrow airport in September. Linehan was arrested over a potential criminal offence but the case was later downgraded to an investigation into a non-crime hate incident, it is understood.
Nick Herbert, the chair of the College of Policing, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The home secretary has already indicated that she wants to ensure that the police are focused on the right things and not on the trivial.
“It was quite clear that the whole regime needed looking at, that there was a perception that the police were being drawn into matters that they shouldn’t have been. I don’t think the police service wanted to be drawn into them. They don’t want to be policing tweets.”
Rather than logging hate incidents on a crime database, the plan would be to treat them as intelligence reports, with officers given a “commonsense” checklist, it was reported.
Earlier this year, Andy Cooke, who leads HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, said: “I’m a firm believer that non-crime hate incidents are no longer required and that intelligence can be gathered in a different way, which would cause less concern to the public and would make recording of such issues much easier for policing.”
Rachel Swann, the vice-chair of the NPCC, said: “We are continuing to work with the College of Policing on finalising our review of non-crime hate incidents before its submission to ministers early in the new year.
“It is not for policing to referee online debates on cultural issues. Protecting free speech and ensuring officers focus on real-world threat and risk is an important part of our considerations. But equally important is ensuring policing can continue to keep our communities safe, such as by spotting risks to vulnerable people, monitoring community tensions or identifying potential precursors to violence and other criminal behaviour.
“Our review will make recommendations for how policing can best do this in the future and it will be for ministers to decide on future policy.”
