NON-CRIME HATE INCIDENTS SHOULD BE SCRAPPED’ -Says ‘Anti-Woke’ Manchester Police Chief
Non-crime hate incidents have gone too far and should be scrapped, the head of Greater Manchester Police has said. Sir Stephen Watson said the policy had been introduced with good intentions but was now past its “sell-by date”.
He stressed it was not the job of the police to involve themselves in people’s arguments, and said the collection of non-crime hate incident data had fuelled the accusations of two-tier policing.
In a speech to the Policy Exchange think tank, the Chief Constable, who was knighted in the King’s recent birthday honours list, urged police forces to get back to basics in order to restore public trust and confidence.
He also hit out at the impact human rights legislation was having on policing, saying it was not right that foreign criminals who “fecklessly fathered children” could then avoid deportation by claiming the right to a family life.
A non-crime hate incident is defined as an incident that falls short of being criminal but is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards a person with a particular characteristic.
Greater Manchester Police was in special measures when Sir Stephen was appointed four years ago, but he has turned the force around thanks to a traditional, no-nonsense approach to policing. Non-crime hate incidents have been used in the past to censor free speech, especially against street preachers and evangelicals.
