The chairman of the College of Policing has become the most senior law enforcement figure to say that the government should consider scrapping the recording of so-called ‘non-crime hate incidents’ (NCHIs).
Nick Herbert, who is also a member of the House of Lords, warned that the requirement to record these ‘incidents’—“perceived” to be motivated by “hostility or prejudice,” but which don’t meet the criteria for criminal offences—was becoming a “distraction.” He has previously emphasised that officers “should not be drawn into the policing of mere disputes which is bad for public confidence in the service.”
More than 13,200 NCHIs were recorded in the 12 months to June this year, all while the Conservatives were in office. Children were among those being investigated for these non-events, including two secondary school girls who said another classmate smelt “like fish.”
Another total non-incident saw police recording soiled underwear hung on a washing line as an NCHI.
After occupying their time with such cases, forces are telling officers that they may work on jobs involving “high harm” victims—including those in child abuse and sex offence cases—from home.
Lord Herbert told The Times that while “we need to prevent harm, we need to ensure that minorities are protected and be alive to things like antisemitism,” politicians “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 pursuit of NCHIs ought to be scrapped altogether, he responded: “Potentially.” Critics of the category remain exasperated by its apparent resilience within law enforcement, despite its unpopularity and incoherence.
Other senior figures, including a former Metropolitan Police commissioner, have also urged the Labour government to reconsider its whole approach to the problem. The issue gained mass national and international attention after an award-winning journalist was visited by the police on Remembrance Sunday over a year-old post on Twitter/X—this time, while Labour was in office.
To date, Keir Starmer’s team looks set only to expand the recording of NCHIs, prompting the Free Speech Union to threaten legal action.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, a woman was killed and two men left injured following a triple shooting in London on Saturday night, and a two-year-old boy was killed in a hit-and-run collision involving a stolen Porsche—the sort of crimes that the public wants the police to concentrate on.
