Police to Stop Investigating Online Squabbles in Free Speech Victory
Police forces across England and Wales will no longer waste valuable time investigating petty arguments and online squabbles in a significant victory for freedom of speech. Campaigners have warmly welcomed the decision to scrap non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), which have been increasingly deployed in disputes involving offensive language that does not constitute criminal behavior.
Common Sense Approach to Policing
Forces have declared the current system 'not fit for purpose', with new 'common sense' rules designed to free up officers to investigate more serious crimes while ensuring reports from the public that may lead to genuine harm 'get the right response'. The shake-up will also prevent a repeat of farcical scenes like when grandmother Helen Jones was visited at her home by police after she criticised Labour politicians online, despite officers admitting she had not committed any crime.
Mrs Jones told the Daily Mail: 'I'm very pleased - this change makes complete sense. The whole experience was awful for me. I was never charged with anything and the police even told me there was no crime committed - it was just someone being spiteful.'
Home Secretary Announces Reforms
Announcing the plans, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood stated: 'Under these reforms, forces will no longer be policing perfectly legal tweets. Instead, they will be doing what they do best: patrolling our streets, catching criminals, and keeping communities safe.'
The decision follows a comprehensive review into NCHIs conducted by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs' Council, which concluded that a new approach was needed 'to keep individuals and communities safe while making clear that lawful free speech is not a police matter'.
Key Recommendations and Changes
The review has produced several important recommendations:
- A 'triage' system using experienced officers to filter out non-crimes
- Ending police involvement in lawful freedom of speech matters
- A tighter definition of what constitutes an 'incident'
- Focusing police resources on prevention and detection of crime, protecting life and property, and maintaining public order
This means fewer officers will be required to attend lesser matters, and non-crime incidents will no longer be recorded on crime systems, ensuring they will not appear in job application checks.
Notable Cases Highlight Problems
Police forces have faced considerable criticism for their involvement in numerous NCHI cases in recent years:
- Newspaper columnist Allison Pearson was visited by police at her home on Remembrance Sunday 2024 over what the force described as 'an alleged offence of inciting racial hatred, linked to a post on social media'.
- Feminist writer Julie Bindel was visited at home in 2019 after someone identifying as transgender said they were offended by one of her online comments.
- Father Ted creator Graham Linehan was arrested by armed police at Heathrow in September last year over online comments about transgender activists.
Addressing Public Concerns
The report acknowledged that in recent years 'there have been numerous examples where the public have felt the police response to hate or hostility has been disproportionate'. It added: 'In today's polarised and highly connected world, police have increasingly found themselves drawn into policing the online space and social media debates. The boundaries between what is legitimate free speech, even where it is offensive, and what requires police intervention are not always clear or absolute. They depend on context, intent and impact.'
Assistant Chief Constable Tom Harding, director at the College of Police, explained: 'Today we are setting out a fundamentally different way of handling reports so that officers can focus efforts on their core duties of preventing crime and protecting communities, while making clear that lawful free speech is not a police matter.'
Political Reactions and Implementation
Lord Young of Acton recently described NCHIs as having had 'a chilling effect on free speech' and added: 'It sounds like we have finally seen the back of NCHIs.'
The current NCHI Code of Practice will be revoked by the Home Office through the Crime and Policing Bill, with the new approach expected to be in force by early next year. Under the new measures, all reports to police deemed to be motivated by hate or hostility that meet the new incident threshold will be recorded as antisocial behavior with a 'prejudice qualifier' added.
However, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp expressed skepticism: 'This is simply a rebrand of non-crime hate incidents with a more restrictive triage process. Reports are still being logged, personal data still recorded, and disclosure rules are unchanged. Officers and staff will still be tied up monitoring incidents that do not meet the criminal threshold, at a cost in time and resources.'
Historical Context and Campaigner Response
NCHIs were introduced in 2014 by the College of Policing and saw a dramatic 400% increase in police recorded hate crimes in the decade from 2012, based on analysis of force figures.
Former police officer Harry Miller, who established the free speech pressure group Fair Cop, expressed delight that NCHIs are being abolished, describing the policy as 'one of the most useless in policing history'. Mr Miller, who was investigated in 2019 after a stranger reported one of his tweets as 'transphobic', told the Mail: 'Police have persisted with them because they have proven to be a useful tool in shutting down political opinion. After a relentless seven-year campaign, Fair Cop is delighted to see the back of them.'
