It has been revealed that 34 police forces in England and Wales recorded almost 120,000 ‘non-crime’ hate incidents between 2014-2019.
So called ‘hate incidents’ must be recorded “irrespective of whether there is any evidence to identify the hate element”, according to the College of Policing (CoP) guidelines.
Although such cases are not crimes, they can they appear during criminal record checks.
‘Perceived’
An overall 119,934 hate incidents were recorded in England and Wales from 2014-2019, after the CoP’s guidelines were first introduced.
South Wales Police recorded the most hate incidents at 13,856, over 4,000 more than Britain’s largest police force, The Metropolitan Police.
The CoP’s definition of a hate incident is “any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice” towards a person because of their characteristics.
Such characteristics include, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transsexualism.
Ruling
The figures were revealed as a high court judge ruled that Humberside Police took unlawful action against a man who opposed transgender ideology online.
A police officer visited Harry Miller’s place of work after receiving a complaint about a ‘transphobic’ tweet, leaving Miller with the impression he could be prosecuted.
However, the judge did not challenge the CoP guidance that led to Miller being told he had committed a ‘non-crime hate incident’. As a result he is to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Freedom
Ciarán Kelly, a Deputy Director at The Christian Institute, said: “We’re delighted the judgment upholds freedom of speech on this contentious issue.
“But it needed to go further and challenge the Police guidelines on recording ‘hate incidents’. We hope the Supreme Court will now do that”.