Greater Manchester Police Chief urges ‘caution’ as he refuses to confirm scrapping of non-crime hate incidents
It comes after the Metropolitan Police reported that it has stopped deploying officers to non-crime hate incidents
The Greater Manchester Police Chief has urged 'caution' as he confirms that the force is not investigating non-crime hate incidents, but refused to rule it out.
Listen to this article
Greater Manchester Police chief constable Sir Stephen Watson told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that his force will investigate all lines of enquiry related to crime.
It comes after the Metropolitan Police reported that it has stopped deploying officers to non-crime hate incidents.
Non-crime hate incidents are acts where a person acts with hostility or prejudice towards a person with a particular characteristic, such as, race, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or gender.
The recording of these incidents was deemed by the Court of Appeal to interfere with freedom of expression and it found that this interference is only legal if it was to prevent crime or disorder, or to protect the rights of others.
It urges a "common sense" approach to investigating these incidents.
Read more: Greater Manchester Police target local neighbourhoods in 'crime-smashing' blitz
Sir Watson told LBC: "We're not investigating anything that doesn't constitute a crime. We're very clear about this.
"We have a very rigorous approach, we will investigate all reasonable lines of inquiry in respect of all allegations of crime.
"Where we have something that is patently not criminal then we will not deploy officers to investigate it.
"But what I would say is that we do need to be cautious."
He told Mr Ferrari that although he doesn't stand by forces "policing hurty words... and nonsense on social media," that doesn't mean that social media isn't used to harm others.
National police forces have come under fire in the last year for the policing of comments made on social media, following the riots in the wake of the Southport attacks.
Other high-profile incidents include Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan's arrest in relation to transgender comments made on X.
In September, the police watchdog called for forces to stop recording non-crime hate incidents.
Sir Watson added: "I am no defender of this notion of policing hurty words and fluff and nonsense on social media, particularly that which people are lawfully entitled to put forward.
"But we also need to recognise that sometimes the online space is used to harass people, to perpetrate domestic abuse, to perpetrate fraud.
"We've got to be a little cautious that everything in the online space, it can't automatically be assumed not to be a crime.
"So, we've got to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water."