Quoting the title of Jon Sopel’s book on Donald Trump’s United States led to a FSU member having a non-crime hate incident (NCHI) logged against his name by police.
The British man cited Sopel’s book, If Only They Didn’t Speak English: Notes from Trump’s America, during a conversation with a white American and two others, intending it as a light-hearted way to make conversation. Later, he followed up with an email to the American, stating: “This is the book I alluded to the other night. It is affectionate towards the USA and its citizens.” Defending the reference, he said it “seemed apposite” in the context of the discussion.
Despite this, a police officer visited his home to question him as a “suspect” and issued “words of advice” regarding his allegedly racist behaviour towards the “victim”.
When the man discovered that the interaction has been recorded by Wiltshire Police as a NCHI, he objected. It was subsequently re-classified as a “non-crime anti-social behaviour incident” (NCIASB), but still remains on his police record.
Speaking to the Telegraph, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “I am intending to apply for a voluntary position that requires an enhanced DBS check and will be very disappointed if this record should prevent a clearance.”
Under the Police Act 2014, police are required to release any information “the chief officer reasonably believes to be relevant for the purpose” of a background check. In other words, police may release NCHI logs to prospective employers performing background checks on prospective employees. How often this occurs is unclear, but the threat is chilling enough.
After hearing about the case, Sopel, who is the former North American editor for the BBC, told the Telegraph: “If this is true, it is utterly preposterous. The book is a very affectionate portrait looking at how different America is from the UK, based on the premise that British people think they know America well but in many ways they don’t.
“A lot of my American friends love what it says about America and find it funny.”
In the book, he describes North America in 2016 as feeling “about as foreign a country as you could imagine. It was fearful, angry and impatient for change. Journeying across the continent to cover the most turbulent race in recent history lifted a lid on seething resentments and profound anxieties”. Explaining the title, he added: “If only they didn’t speak English in America, then we’d treat it as a foreign country – and possibly understand it a lot better.”
The FSU has taken up the man’s case and written to Wiltshire Police, urging the force to wipe the incident from its records and arguing that the man’s personal data is being “improperly held” in breach of the Home Office’s guidance on the recording and retention of NCHIs.
Under new guidance issued in 2023, NCHIs should only be recorded if there is a “real risk” of “significant harm to individuals or groups with a particular characteristic or characteristics” or of “a future criminal offence being committed against individuals or groups with a particular characteristic or characteristics”.
In a letter to Wiltshire Police, Toby Young, the FSU’s general secretary, said: “It is implausible that discussing Jon Sopel’s book could cause harm or ‘escalate into more serious harm’ [or] that it could trigger ‘heightened community tensions’ with the American population of Wiltshire.
“Recording an NCIASB against [him] is at odds with the Home Office’s statutory guidance on anti-social behaviour which likewise stresses the need for proportionality.
“The retention of [his] personal data for the purpose of keeping this record also breaches the police’s general common law power to obtain and store information for policing purposes.”
Toby added: “We are concerned that instead of simply being deleted, the NCHI recorded against [the man] was redefined as a ‘Non-Crime Incident-Anti Social Behaviour’ [NCIASB] in what appears to be an attempt to circumvent the new guidance. His personal data is still being improperly held.”
Unsurprisingly, our member is incredulous that a complaint of a ‘hate crime’ had been made, that any police time had been devoted to it and that a police officer had seen fit to attend his property to give him ‘words of advice’.
In 2014, the current concept of the NCHI was introduced in the College of Policing’s Hate Crime Operational Guidance (HCOG). As defined, an NCHI is any incident perceived by the victim or bystanders to be motivated by hostility or prejudice to the victim based on a ‘protected’ characteristic (race or perceived race, religion or perceived religion, and so on).
As the guidance goes on to note: “The victim does not have to justify or provide evidence of their belief, and police officers or staff should not directly challenge this perception. Evidence of the hostility is not required.”
In the five years following the publication of the HCOG, the FSU estimates that more than 250,000 NCHIs have been recorded by police forces in England and Wales. That’s an average of 66 per day. Little wonder, then, that the police don’t have time to send an officer round to your house if you report a burglary – between 2015 and 2021, 964,197 domestic burglary investigations ended without a suspect being identified.
There’s more on this story here.
