Chief Constable says non-crime hate incidents have ‘passed their shelf life’

One of Britain’s most senior policeman has called for non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) to be ditched.

Speaking to think-tank Policy Exchange, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Sir Stephen Watson QPM said the current approach has “passed its sell-by date”.

According to Freedom of Information responses, British police forces recorded 13,200 NCHIs in the year to June 2024.

‘Mistake’

Although Sir Stephen acknowledged that NCHIs were introduced to better understand communities, he said they have become the “antithesis” of doing the basics.

“What it morphed into was pretty much anybody with a protected characteristic who perceived themselves to be a victim of an incident, because of that, was automatically recorded. I think that’s a mistake, and I think it went too far.”

The Home Office previously announced that Yvette Cooper would increase the burden on police officers to keep records of ‘hate incidents’ which are not criminal offences. The move reversed the last Government’s policy, which told the police not to interfere with a person’s freedom of expression “simply because someone is offended”.

‘Trivial’

Last year, the Chairman of the College of Policing, Lord Herbert of South Downs, told The Times Crime and Justice Commission that there should be a wholesale review of NCHIs.

Lord Herbert said there should be a “common sense approach” that allows a police officer who receives a complaint to be able to say: “‘We’re sorry, we can understand you find that offensive but it’s not a matter for us’”.

“We need to make it absolutely clear that where incidents are trivial they should not be recorded or not recorded in that way. I think we have to go further now and look at the whole system and ask whether it is correctly balanced because I think the public sense is that it is not.”