A former police officer 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 intended to be reserved for cases that are ‘clearly motivated by deliberate hostility’ and where there is a real risk of significant escalation, according to government guidance.
But police have been accused of wasting ‘valuable time’ investigating playground jokes and insults as possible hate speech, amid a rise in serious crimes such as knife crime.
Rachel Reeves was among those who struck last week after it emerged police had investigated children for insulting each other.
Former police officer Harry Miller was confronted by police after joking about identifying himself as a fish
Details obtained by The Times under freedom of information rules show that a nine-year-old child was among the young people viewed by police.
Officers recorded incidents against the child, who called a fellow primary school pupil a ‘retard’, and against two schoolgirls who said another pupil smelled ‘of fish’.
The chancellor insisted officers should use their time “in the best way” when asked about the incidents in schools.
Recording trivial incidents such as NCHIs has been a problem for years.
In 2020, former police officer Harry Miller was visited by Humberside Police for a series of allegedly ‘transphobic’ tweets, including one that read: ‘I was assigned mammal at birth but my orientation is fish. Don’t misjudge me.’
Police recorded the complaint as a ‘non-crime hate incident’, defined by College of Policing guidelines as ‘any non-crime incident which the victim or any other person believes is motivated by hostility or prejudice’. .
Mr Miller, from Lincolnshire, challenged both the actions of Humberside Police and the College of Policing guidelines in the High Court and a judge ruled that the police’s actions were a ‘disproportionate interference’ with Mr Miller’s rights on freedom of expression.
A later Court of Appeal ruling found that the guidelines also violated his right to freedom of expression, forcing the College of Policing to revise its guidelines to add more safeguards for freedom of expression.
But despite statements like this, highly questionable NCHIs continue to be exposed by the press.
In 2021, a man was investigated for racial hatred for whistling the Bob the Builder tune at his neighbor.
Wiltshire Police also investigated an incident where one person said others were making fun of the length of their hair.
More recent cases of reported hate crimes include a Lithuanian customer who was unhappy with his haircut, claiming it was done on purpose because he spoke Russian and the hairdresser was allegedly ‘aggressive and rough’ as a result.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘This nonsense is undermining confidence in the police’
Non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are intended to be reserved for cases that are ‘clearly motivated by deliberate hostility’ and where there is a real risk of significant escalation
In another case which came to light in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the City of London Police by The suna German woman was compared to a Rottweiler in a parking dispute.
In a subsequent incident, police were told that someone had been homophobic for calling someone a ‘Leonard’ while climbing a hedge.
One person was reported to Norfolk Police in an NCHI for calling a Welsh person a ‘sheep sch****r’, while another report in Humberside involved a man asking if the food in the Welsh Chinese restaurant a woman ‘with bats’ came.
Meanwhile, police in Surrey recorded a hate incident after a pub asked a couple to leave after accusing them of having sex in the venue’s toilets.
It was alleged that they had been victims of a hate crime because one of them was transgender
It comes as a journalist who was 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 that officers from Essex Police knocked on her door on Remembrance Day earlier this month to inform her of the investigation, but were unable to give her details of which post was being investigated or who had made the complaint against her .
The complaint related to a tweet that showed 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 officers of ‘smiling with the Jew haters’ in the post.
She said she deleted the post as soon as she realized her mistake, so the post was live for less than two hours.
Allison Pearson (pictured) was investigated by police for ‘fomenting racial hatred’ in a social media post
Just minutes after her lawyer informed her that the case had been dropped, Ms Pearson told the Daily Mail that she ‘wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone’.
“I was first of all obviously shocked and devastated when I had the police on my doorstep on Remembrance Sunday, telling me that I had put something on social media that they said was fueling racial hatred,” she said.
“And they wouldn’t tell me what I should have said. To this day they have never confirmed which post it was.’
The move was condemned by a range of leading politicians, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
A CPS spokesperson said: ‘The CPS has reviewed evidence relating to allegations of incitement to racial hatred or other communications offenses following a police investigation in Essex.
‘We decided that the case did not meet the evidentiary test. The complainant was informed by Essex Police today.”
Essex Police said: ‘We investigate crimes reported to us without fear or favour.
‘We are sometimes confronted with accusations of crime where people hold strongly opposing views.
“That’s why we work so hard to remain impartial and investigate allegations no matter where they may lead.”