A REPORT by an ex-top cop today calls for non-crime hate incidents to be abolished.
Former Met Detective Chief Inspector David Spencer warns that probes into social media messages are having a “chilling effect” on free speech.
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He says they take up 60,000 officer hours every year.
It comes after Essex Police last week announced it was dropping a probe into a tweet by journalist Allison Pearson.
MPs blasted the “witch-hunt” and urged the Home Office to focus police efforts on murderers and rapists instead of non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs).
Rules allow anyone to trigger a police probe into any inter-action they feel is motivated by hostility towards someone’s race, religion, disability or sexuality, with no evidence needed.
Calling for the abolition of the “entire NCHI regime”, Mr Spencer’s report says: “There is little doubt that the recording of NCHIs risks providing a chilling effect on freedom of speech — with the grave effects this has in a liberal democratic society.”
Mr Spencer says Essex officers last year found the time to record twice the national rate of NCHIs — but solved only three per cent of rapes, six per cent of burglaries and 16 per cent of violence-with-injury offences.
The report for think-tank Policy Exchange also found NCHIs are “devastating” job opportunities, as the names of individuals interviewed in probes can be revealed in enhanced checks.
Mr Spencer adds: “Too often police chiefs have chosen to focus their attention on matters other than the fight against those crimes which most affects the public.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has vowed to review NCHIs.
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