The shadow home secretary will tell police chiefs “You are not the thought police” as he calls for a change in the rules about the way officers handle Non-Crime Hate Incidents (NCHIs).
In his first major speech as shadow home secretary, Chris Philp will say police should “concentrate on investigating and preventing crime”, adding: “Non crime hate investigations should not trespass upon free speech.”
It comes after Allison Pearson, a Telegraph columnist, said last week that officers had asked her to attend a voluntary interview over allegations of a non-crime hate incident (NCHI), and that they had refused to divulge details of the allegedly offensive tweet or the complainant.
The Essex police claim Pearson was at no stage of its investigation informed that this was an alleged NCHI.
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Addressing the National Police Chiefs’ Council Summit on Wednesday, Philp will say: “The Police, in my view, should concentrate on investigating and preventing crime. Non crime hate investigations should not trespass upon free speech”.
“I call on the government to urgently ensure the Guidance is re-written to ensure that, only where there is a real risk of imminent criminality, should police get involved. We must use officers’ time to protect the public and catch criminals. Offensive speech is not the same as illegal speech.”
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He will add: “You are not the thought police. I call on police forces to apply common sense and not waste time and resources where there is no criminality, or imminent risk of it.”
The shadow home secretary will also commit to supporting measures that enable officers to use their powers more confidently to protect the public.
“I am concerned officers are losing the confidence to exercise their powers – such as use of force, high speed pursuit and stop and search – as required to keep the public safe and catch criminals”, he will say.
“In government, [the Conservatives] developed proposals including anonymity for firearms officers who are prosecuted, a higher threshold for IOPC referral to the CPS, faster and more common-sense IOPC investigation processes and a change to the standard required for a defence in misconduct proceedings.”
“But I urge the government to go even further. I believe that it should be a defence to both misconduct and criminal proceedings if an officer can show that they materially followed their training or standard procedures in exercising police powers.”
“Officers take risks to keep us safe. So, we should make sure that are always treated reasonably and fairly in return.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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