Orwellian recording of ‘non crime hate incidents’ ends today
Police must focus on burglars and yobs, not online spats
THE perception that police are more interested in virtue signalling than catching criminals is “utterly corrosive” to public confidence, Suella Braverman warned last night.
The Home Secretary blasted the “Orwellian” recording of “non-crime hate incidents” – including those where people defend someone’s biological sex. She said police must now focus on catching burglars, fraudsters and yobs ruining lives.
Ms Braverman spoke as new guidance for officers to use common sense when dealing with online spats came into force today.
Only comments posing “a real risk of significant harm” or that a future crime will be committed will now be noted by police.
Ms Braverman told the Daily Express last night she would do all she could to “remove unnecessary burdens that keep the police from fighting crime”.
She said: “The recording of so-called ‘non-crime hate incidents’ has understandably struck lots of people as Orwellian and wrong.
“Victims of crimes like burglary, antisocial behaviour and fraud will rightly feel that the police should focus more on catching the perpetrators who have caused them misery, rather than wrongly getting involved in lawful debate.
“The perception, however unjustified or unrepresentative, that some police are more interested in virtue signalling than they are in protecting the rights of the law-abiding majority is utterly corrosive to public confidence in policing.”
The new guidance advises officers to look for a common sense reason not to record an incident if the complaint is trivial, irrational or malicious. And the fact someone is offended does not mean an online row should be recorded.
Police chiefs will also be told recording online spats or offensive letters or texts “should be done in a way that does not stifle freedom of speech or create a chilling effect that may inhibit an individual’s ability to engage in legitimate debate”.
About 120,000 people have had their actions put on record in the past five years.
Earlier this year, teacher Cathy Kirby overturned a “hate incident” recorded by the Norfolk force over alleged transphobic posts.
Ms Kirby, of Norwich, regularly posts about what she sees as the threat to women’s rights by the drive to be inclusive towards trans people.
She insisted she backed the rights of women, children and the gay, lesbian and bisexual community and “nothing I have said resembles transphobia”.
In one of the most high-profile cases, ex-policeman Harry Miller won a legal challenge against a policy for forces to record gender-critical views as non-crime hate incidents.
Humberside officers visited Mr Miller in 2020 following a complaint over alleged transphobic tweets. It was recorded on a national database.
In a post during the debate about reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004, he said: “I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me.”