A ‘hate crime’ awareness course has been scrapped by Hampshire Police following concerns it was being used to ‘re-educate’ people who had not committed any offence.
The scheme was intended to be used as an alternative to prosecution if police deem an offence has been committed following an investigation. But the two-hour sessions were also being offered before any investigation had taken place and for ‘non-crime hate incidents’, where someone reports that they have been offended but no crime has been committed.
Concerns had also been raised that the scheme was being used to challenge a person’s legitimately held beliefs about controversial issues, particularly in relation to radical gender ideology.
Scrapped
Donna Jones, who was elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire last year, has now announced the scheme will be scrapped.
She explained that where an incident “reaches the evidential threshold for a hate crime, perpetrators can expect police action”, but that the hate crime awareness courses would no longer be offered by way of a community resolution option.
Instead, she said: “Other restorative justice and community resolution provision will still be in place for police to utilise for serious hate crimes and other incidents, but only where appropriate.”
‘Re-education and indoctrination’
Harry Miller, who recently won a High Court case in which judges ruled that the College of Policing’s guidance on the recording of non-hate crime incidents was unlawful, said the awareness courses were deeply worrying.
He said: “This is all about re-education and indoctrination. It has nothing to do with resolving matters between victims and suspects.”
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