Police Scotland will investigate every hate speech complaint it receives once the country’s Hate Crime Act is activated, while at the same time rolling out plans to stop investigating crimes like theft and criminal damage.
As reported by the Telegraph, Police Scotland has for the first time admitted that its plan to stop investigating all crimes risks helping criminals – although the national force is refusing to say which offences were not investigated during a pilot study of the initiative undertaken in Aberdeen, as it argued that doing so would provide law-breakers with a major “tactical advantage”. The report continues:
The pilot was judged a success and used as a basis for a national roll-out.
It faced claims of secrecy as it has already admitted publicly that some cases of theft and criminal damage will fall within the policy, but declined to make clear which other crimes would also be considered for non-investigation.
The admission that criminals may try to avoid detection due to the initiative, in which it is estimated that more than 24,000 offences a year will no longer be allocated to a front-line officer, was also seen as undermining repeated police claims that it is “not a policy of non-investigation”.
The Telegraph had asked for a list of which offences were not investigated during a pilot of the policy in the Aberdeen area under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation.
Police Scotland refused to release the data, claiming that admitting which crimes the policy could apply to would risk handing “those with criminal intent” the opportunity to “plan and orchestrate their criminal activities with the aim to avoid detection”.
Chief Constable Jo Farrell told a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority this week that “we are talking about crimes of theft and criminal damage for example” but did not make clear whether other offences may not be investigated.
Sharon Dowey, the deputy justice spokesman for the Scottish Tories, said: “This secretive response cannot be justified. The public deserves to know which crimes will typically not be investigated.
“The lack of transparency is especially difficult to comprehend when some crimes that won’t be investigated have already been published.
“If criminals could be handed a tactical advantage as a result of this policy, why is it going ahead at all?”
The news comes as the country gears up for the activation of the SNP’s controversial new hate crime bill next month, and Jo Farrell also admitted that this could create “additional demand” and create a “resource implication” for police.
Police Scotland has already made clear that it will investigate every single complaint made under the new law, which means the same officers who have been instructed to avoid investigating reports of criminal damage and theft, will soon have carte blanche to question people for expressing lawful but dissenting, offensive or contentious views that those with particular protected characteristics – as well as the many activists who purport to speak on their behalf – happen to perceive as ‘hateful’.
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