Essex Police has set up a “gold group” usually reserved for dealing with major crimes to handle the investigation into a Telegraph journalist’s social media post, the Telegraph reports.
Allison Pearson, an award-winning writer, is being investigated by the force for allegedly stirring up racial hatred with a social media post made in November last year.
In a visit to Pearson’s house on Remembrance Sunday, officers refused to tell her any details about which post on X, formerly Twitter, was being investigated, or who made the complaint against her.
Pearson said that officers told her that the matter was being treated as a non-crime hate incident rather than a criminal investigation.
The force claims this is “wholly inaccurate” and said that “as the public would expect” it had body-worn video of the encounter which it claimed “entirely supports our position”.
The Telegraph article continues:
The purpose of gold groups is to ensure the “effectiveness of ongoing police response” and they are usually headed by an assistant chief constable or above.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services say a gold group is set up to “improve the police response to an incident, crime or other matter”.
The guidance states: “This involves bringing together appropriately skilled and qualified interested parties who can advise, guide or otherwise support the management of an effective response to the identified incident, crime or other matter.”
The Telegraph understands that the social media post in question was reported to the Metropolitan Police as a potential breach of the Malicious Communications Act in November last year. The case was then passed to Sussex Police, which marked it as a possible non-crime hate incident (NCHI), as well as a potential malicious communication.
Sussex Police passed it to Essex, where Pearson lives. It is understood Essex made two assessments of the complaint before opening an investigation under section 17 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to material allegedly “likely or intended to cause racial hatred”, and visiting her house.
The investigation into Pearson has been labelled as a “chilling” attack on free speech by a force that has “prioritised diversity over real crime”.
Councillor Neil Gregory, a substitute member of the Essex Police, Fire and Crime Panel, accused Essex Police of “institutional incompetence and dysfunction on an epic scale”.
He said: “It is certainly the impression I get that they are prioritising diversity over real crime.
“Sadly the appalling treatment of Allison is merely the tip of the iceberg of an obsession with diversity, neglect of crime and institutional incompetence and dysfunction on an epic scale.
“CC [Chief Constable Ben-Julian] Harrington is more concerned with promoting diversity than dealing with crime, indeed his divisional commander for Uttlesford and Braintree made it clear at a public meeting that they will not address active and public drug dealing due to lack of resources, Essex Police appear to have resources to chase those sending tweets on Remembrance Sunday but not for catching drug dealers in broad daylight.
“There is a bizarre set of priorities. We have a bad drug-dealing problem, we have a very under-resourced policing panel and you go on the various Twitter feeds of various officers and it’s all about the latest diversity courses they have gone to.”
Essex Police have been accused of ignoring 999 calls from concerned residents about drug deals on the streets, according to documents obtained by The Telegraph.
Documents also revealed that Essex Police would not “dispatch a patrol car” every time it received a tip-off from a concerned resident.
At a community meeting in Uttlesford in February this year, police were told residents often saw drug deals being done in public and they believed police were not doing anything about it.
“We noted the number of residents at the meeting who expressed concerns about apparent open drug dealing in various communities across the district and the seeming lack of response to those activities when reported,” according to Mr Gregory.
“It was made clear that 999 calls on overt drug dealing would not be pursued.”
Worth reading in full.
