Hampshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has called for a complete review of non-crime hate incidents and pledged to lobby Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on the issue.
Speaking on GB News, Donna Jones criticised the existing legislation as “poor” and said it needs to be entirely reconsidered.
Jones expressed particular concern about the strain on police resources, stating: “We don’t have enough police officers to investigate the actual crimes, the burglaries, the shoplifting, the street robberies, the sexual assaults.”
Jones added that the legislation was compounded by “poor guidance” from the College of Policing, leaving police officers “stuck in the middle”.
Donna Jones has called on Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to review non-crime hate incidents
GB News / PA
Lord Herbert, chairman of the College of Policing, has become the most senior figure to call for reforms to NCHI recording.
He told The Times that non-crime hate incidents had become “an impediment to the police doing what we want the police to do”.
Jones stated: “The clue is in the title; the police should not be responding to anything that is not a crime. It’s as simple as that.”
She cited examples of unnecessary police involvement, including “pictures in pubs and schoolchildren calling each other names in the playground are being investigated and reported as a non-crime hate incident”.
Chairman of the College of Policing, Lord Nick Herbert, has called on Labour to ‘consider scrapping’ the investigation of non-crime hate incidents
Getty
Jones explained the distinction between actual hate crimes and non-crime incidents in her comments.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
She explained: “If someone is offensive to someone because of their race or their religion, that is an actual crime.
“If I go up to somebody and call them a name in the street because they are Muslim or they’re Jewish or whatever it is, I am committing a crime.”
However, she stressed that general comments not directly targeting someone’s religion were different: “That is just me giving my opinion, and people may not like it. It’s just been absurd.”
Jones indicated she would continue pressing the issue with the Home Secretary, saying: “I will be lobbying her when I see her.”
Donna Jones told GB News that the current stance on non-crime hate incidents is ‘absurd’
GB News
Jones acknowledged some disagreement with Cooper’s position, stating: “Unfortunately, the Home Secretary appears not to be on the same page as me completely.
“She sees that it has caused lots of issues for the police, but she does want it to remain.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has called for a more focused approach to recording non-crime hate incidents, specifically in cases where there is a clear risk to community safety and wellbeing.
Under current government guidance, NCHIs should only be recorded when they are “clearly motivated by intentional hostility” with a real chance of escalation.
