Police force criticised for call to lodge non-criminal insults

A POLICE force has urged people to report insults that make them feel bad even if they are not crimes.

Under the slogan “Hate Hurts”, South Yorkshire Police have called upon members of the public to report incidents they know not to be criminal in order to build up a wider picture of actions that cause distress to people within the community.

Non-criminal hate incidents can include offensive or insulting comments made online, in person or in writing.

The campaign has drawn criticism from people who say the police already have enough work to do.

The move comes after an incident on Saturday in Barnsley’s market square involving a woman wielding a footlong kitchen knife, who was heard shouting “Kill, kill, kill’’ by witnesses.

Ayaan Ali, 28, has been charged with attempted murder, but police have said that since the incident, there has been an increase in Islamophobic outbursts on social media and in the streets of South Yorkshire.

However, local leaders have questioned the use of police time to deal with non-criminal actions, in light of squeezed resources. In May, the force faced a violent crime wave of five murders in 13 days. Cllr Robert Bernard said: “How do they propose to investigate incidents that are not crimes?

‘‘I think somebody working in PR or social media has not thought this through. If they don’t have the resources to investigate other things, how are they going to find the resources to investigate these?’’

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts saying: “We record non-crime hate incidents in the same way we record non-crime anti-social behaviour incidents and non-crime domestic abuse incidents, so we can gain a fuller understanding of actions which cause distress to people within our communities.

“By doing this, we aim to support those affected and prevent this behaviour from escalating into crime. One of the basic principles of British policing is that prevention is more effective than detection.”

Dr Alan Billings, police and crime commissioner for South Yorkshire, said: ‘‘I am totally supportive of the efforts by South Yorkshire Police to protect anyone who is the subject of a hate incident or a hate crime – because that could be any of us.”