Non-crime hate incidents should no longer be recorded by police forces, a review has recommended.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing are carrying out a review of non-crime hate incidents, which is due to report in December.
An interim report submitted last week to policing minister Sarah Jones called for the practice of recording such incidents to be scrapped by forces across England and Wales, The Times reports.
Under a new system, officers and call handlers would record information only where there was a clear risk of harm, the newspaper adds.
It comes after the Metropolitan Police announced on Monday it is no longer investigating non-crime hate incidents.
The move came after it emerged Father Ted creator Graham Linehan will face no further action over social media posts he made about transgender issues, after he was arrested at Heathrow Airport in September.
Assistant Chief Constable Tom Harding, director of operational standards at the College of Policing, told The Times the new system would likely cause a “significant reduction” in incident recording.
He said: “We will remove NCHIs in their current form. We’re not here to deal with differences of opinion or online fallings-out – policing’s job is to protect people from harm.
“At the moment, anything that causes a member of the public concern must be recorded – that’s vast. It’s gone far beyond policing’s core responsibilities.
“We found confusing, inconsistent practice across the country.
“People were being made to feel like suspects when no crime had been committed.
“Non-crime hate incidents were being logged on crime systems, which made people feel like they were being treated as criminals – that was never the intention.
“We think the current definition has drifted too far from what policing is here to do.”
Linehan, a 57-year-old Irish comedy writer, was arrested at Heathrow after flying in from Arizona in September, on suspicion of inciting violence over three posts he had made on X.
The arrest sparked controversy, with Conservative politicians and Harry Potter author JK Rowling among those who voiced their outrage.
While the initial arrest was made by officers who the Met said had reasonable grounds to believe an offence had been committed under the Public Order Act, the investigation later became one into a non-crime hate incident.
Non-crime hate incidents are perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards certain characteristics such as race or gender but do not meet the threshold of a criminal offence.
Following Linehan’s arrest, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said officers were in “an impossible position” when dealing with statements made online.
On Monday, a spokesperson for the Met said the commissioner had 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 force said the decision to no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents would now “provide clearer direction for officers, reduce ambiguity and enable them to focus on matters that meet the threshold for criminal investigations”.
The Met has said it will still record non-crime hate incidents to use as “valuable pieces of intelligence to establish potential patterns of behaviour or criminality”.
Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, chairman of the NPCC, said: “We are reviewing the police approach to dealing with non-crime hate incidents because the current system is not working like it should.
“Police officers are operating in an increasingly polarised world with regulations that expect them to referee societal debate rather than focus on real-world threat and risk.
“We continue to work hard with the College of Policing to progress our review into non-crime hate incidents and will share its findings when complete.
“It is vital that we continue to record and gather intelligence around hate and monitor community tensions, as we remain vigilant to precursors to violence and other more serious crimes.”
