Past non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) should be erased from people’s records as part of planned reforms to the police system, free speech campaigners have warned.
NCHIs will be scrapped by all police forces under proposals set to be presented to Shabana Mahmood next month.
Police leaders believe NCHIs are no longer “fit for purpose”, following warnings they undermine free speech and divert officers away from fighting crime.
Instead, they are to be replaced with a “common sense” system, meaning just a small portion of incidents would now be reported under a serious category of anti-social behaviour.
Campaigners have warned that older NCHIs would stay on people’s records unless at least 100,000 from the past six years were erased.
An NCHI is not a criminal offence but is an act perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic.
Personal data in an NCHI record can currently be retained on police databases for a maximum of six years before being reviewed.
Lord Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, told The Telegraph: “There will be at least 100,000 existing NCHIs sitting on people’s records and still disclosable on DBS checks.”
Lord Young has joined forces with former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Hogan-Howe, to table an amendment to the Government’s policing bill that would mandate the deletion of all historic NCHIs from police databases.
The proposed change would only permit retention where records remain pertinent to active criminal investigations or prosecutions.
