Plans to abolish the controversial system of recording non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are set to be presented to the Home Secretary next month, according to reports. Senior police figures have concluded the practice is not 'fit for purpose' and draws officers into policing 'toxic culture wars debates'.
What Are Non-Crime Hate Incidents?
Non-crime hate incidents are logged by police when an action is perceived to be motivated by hatred towards someone's race, religion, gender, or other protected characteristic, but does not meet the criminal threshold. Critics have long argued that the system has been misused to record petty online arguments, stifling free speech and wasting valuable police resources.
Research indicates the process consumes up to 60,000 hours of police time each year, with more than 13,000 NCHIs recorded in the year to June 2023 alone. The Metropolitan Police has already announced it will no longer investigate such incidents.
A New 'Common Sense' System
Under the new proposals, developed by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), the NCHI concept will be completely scrapped. It will be replaced by a streamlined system treating similar reports as intelligence, rather than logging them on crime databases.
Officers will be given a 'common sense' checklist designed to ensure they focus only on the most serious category of anti-social behaviour, such as antisemitism. Lord Herbert, chairman of the College of Policing, called the shift a 'sea change', stating that incidents will no longer appear on records used for pre-employment checks.
He emphasised that the recording of NCHIs had 'drawn police into an area I don't believe they want to be in'. The move aligns with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's recent directive that officers should be policing the streets, not monitoring 'perfectly legal language in any individual's tweets'.
Controversial Cases That Sparked Change
The decision follows several high-profile cases that ignited debate over police priorities and free speech:
- Graham Linehan: The 'Father Ted' creator was arrested by five armed officers in September over a post on X (formerly Twitter) concerning transgender activists. The Crown Prosecution Service later dropped the case, and Linehan intends to sue the Met for wrongful arrest.
- Harry Miller: A former police officer was visited by Humberside Police after a complaint about an allegedly transphobic tweet.
- Helen Jones: A grandmother was visited by two plain-clothes officers after posting online that she wanted a Labour councillor to resign.
- Allison Pearson: The columnist was investigated after mistakenly describing activists as 'Jew Haters'.
Tom Harding, the College of Policing's director of operational standards, said ending the practice would stop officers recording 'trivial fallings-out online' and allow a return to core policing. The NPCC and College of Policing will publish their final review next month before presenting it to the Home Secretary.
