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Britain’s largest police force has announced it will stop investigating non-crime hate incidents, saying officers should no longer spend time investigating matters that fall short of a criminal offense.
The decision comes just as the Metropolitan Police confirmed it has abandoned its case against Father Ted creator Graham Linehan, who had been arrested at Heathrow Airport last month.
A police spokesperson said the force “understands the concern” surrounding the case.
“The Commissioner has been clear he doesn’t believe officers should be policing toxic culture war debates, with current laws and rules on inciting violence online leaving them in an impossible position,” the spokesperson said.
The new approach, they added, will “provide clearer direction for officers, reduce ambiguity and enable them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations.”
Non-crime hate incidents, Orwellian in name, are situations reported to police that are thought to involve hostility or prejudice toward people based on attributes such as race, religion, or gender identity.
They are recorded under Home Office guidance to monitor potential hate-related behavior that might “escalate into more serious harm,” but these incidents do not constitute criminal acts.
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that while it will stop investigating non-crime hate incidents, officers will still record them for intelligence purposes.
The shift marks a major change in policy but not a complete abandonment of data collection.
A spokesperson clarified the distinction, saying, “These incidents will still be recorded and used as valuable pieces of intelligence to establish potential patterns of behaviour or criminality.”
In a statement following the Met’s decision, the the Free Speech Union wrote, “Great news that the @metpoliceuk will no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents — a direct result of our successful campaign to get the Met to drop its investigation of @glinner, which it has now done.”
The group warned, however, that the broader issue remains unresolved, saying, “This is a tremendous victory, but the war is not yet over. We now have to make sure all the other police forces in the UK follow in the Met’s footsteps and they all now stop recording NCHIs, including the Met, in a way that means they can show up in enhanced DBS checks and prevent you from getting a job as a teacher or a carer. No one should be prevented from getting a job because they’ve committed a ‘non-crime’.”
