Girls falling out on Snapchat, a dispute over a car parking space, and a teddy bear picnic featuring a golliwog are among the latest trivial non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) recorded by police, according to newly examined data that has reignited concerns about police overreach and the misuse of taxpayer-funded resources.
An audit conducted by The Times revealed over 14,344 NCHIs recorded by 44 police forces in the year leading up to September.
In Derbyshire, a Snapchat argument between two teenage girls was logged because one called another a “Polish twat”, despite the school having already dealt with the matter. A mental health patient’s offhand remark calling a staff member “dark chocolate” was recorded. While the complainant admitted they were neither alarmed nor distressed by the phrase, they nonetheless stated that they believed it carried racial undertones.
In South Yorkshire, one of 712 total reports detailed a man entering a men’s toilet and being told by two others, “This is not the women’s toilets.” By way of explanation, officers added the comment: “Victim has long hair.” The same force recorded another, alleging: “Caller has found a dead cat next to her bins. She cannot see anyone leaving it there on her doorbell camera. She believes it could have been left there intentionally, and that it is possibly hate related.”
Another recorded incident in Sussex involved a football spectator who made a hand gesture to opposing fans while shouting: “Who are the rentboys over there?” In Devon and Cornwall, where 162 NCHIs were recorded, “dispute over a car parking space” was deemed significant enough to warrant recording.
Police in Humberside, where there were 158 allegations, recorded someone taking “offence at hand-painted teddy bear picnic scene as within the painting there is a ‘golliwog’ which witness states is racist”. In Nottingham, where 578 incidents were recorded, one report involved a family member accused of transphobia after claiming the “victim” was “living out a sexual fantasy.” Another incident logged by the same force recorded a person being referred to as “Lesberinas” in a comment about her sexuality.
Donna Jones, Hampshire’s police and crime commissioner, said: “Hate crimes are an offence and there is adequate legislation to prosecute offenders and protect victims. However, NCHIs are not criminal offences. The clue is in the title: ‘non-crime.’” Jones added: “As a police crime commissioner in one of the biggest police forces in this country, I am wholly against a single second of scarce police resource being spent on responding to anything that isn’t a crime.”
NCHIs were formally introduced in 2014 by the College of Policing under its Hate Crime Operational Guidance, which, for the first time, required police forces to record detailed information, including the personal details of those alleged to have committed a perceived ‘hate incident,’ even when no crime had been committed. According to this guidance, an NCHI is defined as any incident perceived by the victim or a bystander to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a protected characteristic such as race, religion, or sexual orientation. Crucially, evidence of hostility or prejudice is not required, and the victim’s perception cannot be challenged by police officers. The system was intended to track potential hate incidents to prevent escalation into serious hate crimes. However, the lack of evidentiary thresholds and the subjective nature of the recording process have led to accusations that it enables frivolous complaints and misallocates police efforts.
In 2021, Harry Miller, a former police officer, won a landmark legal case challenging the recording of a tweet he posted as an NCHI. The Court of Appeal ruled that the scale of NCHI recording was an unlawful interference with free speech and breached Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. One reason why the High Court and the Court of Appeal looked askance at the recording and retention of NCHIs on the scale it was happening is because they can show up on enhanced criminal records checks and stop people getting jobs. 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 police actually relay this information is unclear, but the threat is chilling enough.
As Lord Macdonald QC, the former Director of Public Prosecutions put it in The Times: “NCHIs have consequences. They are not anonymised. They sit forever against the names of the alleged perpetrators without any real investigation or right of appeal… We need hardly imagine what an HR manager would make of a job applicant with a police history of hate.”
Following the Court of Appeal’s ruling, in 2023 the UK government introduced a statutory Code of Practice to regulate the recording of NCHIs. The new guidance requires police officers to exercise common sense and avoid chilling lawful free speech, even if it is potentially offensive.
As per the Code: “All efforts should be made [by officers] to avoid a chilling effect on free speech (including, but not limited to, lawful debate, humour, satire and personally held views).” It continues: “Even where the speech is potentially offensive, a person has the right to express personally-held views in a lawful manner. This includes the right to engage in legitimate debate on political speech or speech discussing political or social issues where this is likely to be strong differences of opinion.”
Unfortunately, the new Code, which was designed to reduce the rate of NCHI recording and put it on a lawful footing, has had little practical effect. The FSU recently submitted FOI requests to all 43 police forces in England and Wales to find out if the number of NCHIs they were recording had gone down since the new Code of Practice was introduced in June 2023. According to our analysis of the data we got back, the number being recorded has actually increased. Overall, the increase was 1.6%, but in certain regions it increased by much more. Across the 16 regions which saw an increase (out of 29 we analysed, covering 73% of the population of England and Wales), the number recorded has gone up by 28.2% since parliament legislated to bring the number down.
This troubling trend has fuelled criticism from senior policing figures.
The chairman of the College of Policing (CoP), Lord Herbert of South Downs, said recently that the government should consider scrapping the practice in its present form, making him the most senior policing figure to criticise how hate incidents are logged.
The CoP’s Board and the National Police Chiefs’ Council have now written to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, with the support of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, calling for NCHIs to be looked at in the round to ensure that the right balance is struck between the collection of data to prevent harm and the right to freedom of expression. According to The Times, the three most senior bodies in policing believe that this review could result in a move away from the current concept of NCHIs.
