Police leaders are set to recommend scrapping non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) in a review to be published next month.College of Policing chair Lord Herbert told the BBC a “sensible” new approach, focused only on the most serious incidents, would “re-balance the system” for the social media age.NCHIs are alleged acts motivated by hostility or prejudice towards people with certain characteristics, such as race or gender, but which do not meet the bar for a criminal offence.Current Home Office guidance says they are recorded to collect data on “hate incidents that could escalate into more serious harm”, but critics say they divert police resources and restrict freedom of speech.Though they are not crimes, NCHIs stay on police records and can come up in background checks.Police guidance on the recording of NCHIs was first published in 2005, following recommendations by an inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence – the London teenager who was stabbed to death in a racist attack in 1993.But Lord Herbert said “an explosion of social media” in the years since they were introduced has meant police had been drawn into monitoring “mere disputes” online.Officers do not want to be “policing tweets”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.He added that recent headlines about NCHIs were “awkward and very damaging” for the police.”It was quite clear that the whole regime needed looking at, that there was a perception that the police were being drawn into matters that they shouldn’t have been,” he added.The home secretary will have the final decision on whether to adopt the recommendations outlined by the College of Policy and National Police Chiefs’ Council in their review next month.Th …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnPolice leaders are set to recommend scrapping non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) in a review to be published next month.College of Policing chair Lord Herbert told the BBC a “sensible” new approach, focused only on the most serious incidents, would “re-balance the system” for the social media age.NCHIs are alleged acts motivated by hostility or prejudice towards people with certain characteristics, such as race or gender, but which do not meet the bar for a criminal offence.Current Home Office guidance says they are recorded to collect data on “hate incidents that could escalate into more serious harm”, but critics say they divert police resources and restrict freedom of speech.Though they are not crimes, NCHIs stay on police records and can come up in background checks.Police guidance on the recording of NCHIs was first published in 2005, following recommendations by an inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence – the London teenager who was stabbed to death in a racist attack in 1993.But Lord Herbert said “an explosion of social media” in the years since they were introduced has meant police had been drawn into monitoring “mere disputes” online.Officers do not want to be “policing tweets”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.He added that recent headlines about NCHIs were “awkward and very damaging” for the police.”It was quite clear that the whole regime needed looking at, that there was a perception that the police were being drawn into matters that they shouldn’t have been,” he added.The home secretary will have the final decision on whether to adopt the recommendations outlined by the College of Policy and National Police Chiefs’ Council in their review next month.Th …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
