A police chief last night said the Government should consider scrapping non-crime hate incidents as it is an ‘impediment’ to officers.
Lord Herbert, chairman of the College of Policing, wants Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to scrap the practice in its present form because it distracts forces from doing ‘the basics’.
He has become the most senior policing figure to criticise how hate incidents are recorded after Essex Police launched an investigation last month into Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson over an old social media post.
The College of Policing, as well as the National Police Chiefs’ Council, have written to Home Office, with the support of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, calling for the category to be reviewed to ensure a balance is met between preventing harm and freedom of speech.
More than 13,000 hate incidents were recorded in the 12 months to June this year, figures from 45 of Britain’s 48 police forces showed.
These cases included instances children being probed , including secondary school girls who said another pupil smelt ‘like fish’.
Ms Cooper wants police to log non-crime hate incidents only when there is a clear risk to community tensions, with a particular focus on Islamophobia and antisemitism.
But former Tory MP Lord Herbert told The Times: ‘On the other hand we must ensure that police are not drawn into the trivial.
‘We want to apply a commonsense approach, where the police officer would receive a complaint and they would be able to say, ‘We’re sorry, we can understand you find that offensive but it’s not a matter for us.’
Asked whether the category of non-crime hate incident should be scrapped, Lord Herbert replied: ‘Potentially.’
He added: ‘I think it has become an impediment to the police doing what we want the police to do, which is ensure that they are preventing harm, identifying where there is risk of harm, ensuring that it can be prevented, because I think that the category itself has become controversial and a distraction from what the police need to be doing.
‘Where I think this is especially damaging is if there is a perception that the police are not doing the basics but are being drawn into territory they should not be on.’