Police should be banned from recording so-called “non-crime hate incidents”, Conservatives will insist this week. The Commons is to vote on a Tory bid to scrap the controversial measure following warnings that police are wasting their time and stifling free speech. Forces looked into 13,200 so-called hate incidents in one year, including comments made by a nine-year-old child in a playground.
Shadow Police Minister Matt Vickers said the use of non-crime hate incidents had “spiralled out of control”. Conservatives will try to amend the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill to make it illegal in most cases for police to collect or retain personal data relating to alleged hate incidents where no crime has been committed.
Mr Vickers said: “Most people just want the police to get back to basics. Keep the streets safe and catch the criminals but when they see officers showing up to log opinions instead, confidence goes out the window.
“That’s why this week the Conservative Party are putting forward a change in law to stop police forces from recording non-crime hate incidents.”
A non-crime hate incident is an alleged act perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards people with because of a characteristic such as their race or gender.
Incidents logged by police have included a child aged nine who called a pupil a “retard” and two teenage girls who told another pupil she “smells like fish”.
Barrister Sarah Phillimore was recorded as carrying out a non-crime hate incident after stating on social media that trans women are not women.
Journalist Allison Pearson reported that police visited her home to say she had been accused of a non-crime hate incident over something she said on X a year previously, although her account was disputed by Essex Police.
The Tory clause would bar police forces from keeping records on individuals who have not broken the law but are accused of expressing views or behaving in a way deemed offensive. An exception would be made when a senior officer ranked Inspector or above authorised retention when it might help prevent an actual crime or help with an investigation into an offence.
Non-crime hate incidents were developed following the racist murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence in 1999. An inquiry led by judge Sir William Macpherson recommended that police should record “racist incidents” even if they were not crimes.
However the official police watchdog, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, has warned that some forces “deploy resources unnecessarily”.
A report last year warned: “A risk-averse approach and a lack of knowledge have led to incorrect recording of non-crime hate incidents and hate crimes.”
Think tank policy exchange has called the current arrangements “a chilling distraction from the public’s priorities on policing”.
Mr Vickers said police officers should be focused on tackling real crime – not policing social media for hurt feelings or intimidating ordinary citizens for expressing lawful opinions.