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A former PC tweeting a joke about identifying as a fish and a boy calling another a ‘leprechaun’ are further examples of so-called ‘hate incidents’ investigated by police.
Non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are meant to be reserved for cases that are ‘clearly motivated by intentional hostility’ and where there is a genuine risk of significant escalation, according to government guidance.
But the police have been accused of wasting ‘valuable time’ on investigating jokes and playground insults as possible hate speech amid a rise in serious offences like knife crime.
Rachel Reeves was among those to hit out last week after it emerged that police had been probing children for insulting each other.
Former police officer Harry Miller was spoken to by police after joking about identifying as a fish
Details obtained under freedom of information rules by The Times showed a nine-year-old child was among the youngsters who have been looked at by police.
Officers recorded incidents against the child, who called a fellow primary school pupil a ‘retard’, and against two schoolgirls who said another student smelled ‘like fish’.
The Chancellor insisted officers should be making the ‘best’ use of their time as she was asked about the incidents in schools.
The recording of trivial incidents as NCHIs has been an issue for years.
In 2020, former police officer Harry Miller was visited by Humberside Police for a series of allegedly ‘transphobic’ tweets, including one which read: ‘I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me.’
The force recorded the complaint as a ‘non-crime hate incident’, defined by the College of Policing’s guidance as ‘any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice’.
Mr Miller, from Lincolnshire, challenged both Humberside Police’s actions and the College of Policing’s guidance at the High Court and a judge ruled the force’s actions were a ‘disproportionate interference’ with Mr Miller’s right to freedom of expression.
A later Court of Appeal ruling found the guidance also breached his freedom of expression rights – forcing the College of Policing to review its guidance to add in more safeguards for freedom of speech.
Yet despite rulings such as these, highly dubious NCHIs continue to be exposed by the Press.
In 2021, a man was investigated for racial hatred because he whistled the Bob the Builder tune at his neighbour.
Wiltshire police also investigated an incident where a person said others were mocking the length of their hair.
More recent cases of reported hate crime include a Lithuanian customer who was unhappy with their haircut claimed it was done deliberately because he spoke Russian and the barber was allegedly ‘aggressive and rough’ as a result.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘This nonsense undermines confidence in policing’
Non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are meant to be reserved for cases that are ‘clearly motivated by intentional hostility’ and where there is a genuine risk of significant escalation
In another case uncovered in a freedom of information (FOI) request to City of London Police by The Sun, a German woman was likened to a Rottweiler in a parking dispute.
In a further incident police were told someone had been homophobic because they referred to someone as a ‘Leonard’ in a row over a hedge.
One person was reported to Norfolk police in a NCHI for calling a Welsh person a ‘sheep sh****r’, while another report in Humberside related to a man asking whether a woman’s Chinese restaurant food came ‘with bats’.
Meanwhile in Surrey, police logged a hate incident after a pub asked a couple to leave after accusing them of having sex in the toilets at the venue.
It was alleged they had been the victim of a hate crime, because one of them was transgender
It comes as a journalist visited by police for allegedly stirring up racial hatred with a social media post last year was told she would not be charged.
Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson revealed officers from Essex Police knocked on her door on Remembrance Day earlier this month to inform her of the probe, but could not give her any details about what post was being investigated or who made the complaint against her.
The complaint related to a tweet showing an image of two police officers standing next to two men holding the flag of a Pakistani political party.
Ms Pearson had confused the flag with that of Hamas, tagged the Metropolitan Police and accused the officers of ‘smiling with the Jew haters’ in the post.
She said she deleted the message as soon as she realised her mistake, so the message was live for less than two hours.
Allison Pearson (pictured) was investigated by police for ‘stirring up racial hatred’ in a post on social media
Speaking just minutes after her solicitor informed her the case had been dropped, Ms Pearson told the Daily Mail she would ‘not wish this experience on anybody.’
‘I was obviously shocked and devastated in the first place to have had the police on my doorstep on Remembrance Sunday, of all days, telling me I had put something up on social media which they said was stirring up racial hatred,’ she said.
‘And they wouldn’t tell me what it was I was supposed to have said. To this day they have never confirmed which post it was all about.’
The action was condemned by a string of high profile politicians including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
A CPS spokesman said: ‘The CPS reviewed evidence relating to allegations of inciting racial hatred or any other communications offences following an Essex police investigation.
‘We have decided that the case failed to meet the evidential test. The complainant has been informed by Essex police today.’
Essex Police said: ‘We investigate crimes reported to us without fear or favour.
‘We’re sometimes faced with allegations of crime where people have strong opposing views.
‘That’s why we work so hard to remain impartial and to investigate allegations, regardless of where they might lead.’