Kemi Badenoch vows to free up police by stopping them intervening in social media clashes

• Kemi Badenoch has pledged to stop reporting of ‘non-crime hate incidents’
• She says she will stop the police interfering in Twitter spats with no crime
• She vowed to end the ‘onerous burden’ of ‘policing of people’s hurt feelings’

Kemi Badenoch has pledged to stop the police intervening in Twitter spats so they have more time to investigate burglaries and anti-social behaviour.

She wants to ban officers from recording incidents when someone says something offensive but not criminal.

Mrs Badenoch accused senior police leaders of failing to ensure resources are targeted at the things ‘the public really care about’.

Kemi Badenoch, pictured on tonight’s leadership debate, says she wants the police to spend more time dealing with criminals

Mrs Badenoch warned that the police in England and Wales are logging tens of thousands of ‘non-crime hate incidents’ each year, often when things are said that are offensive but not criminal

Setting out her priorities for tackling crime, the Tory leadership candidate vowed to end the ‘onerous burden’ of ‘policing of people’s hurt feelings’.

She said: ‘The public rightly expect the police to deal with criminals, not to intervene in Twitter spats. My Government will ensure police resource is always focused on fighting crime on our streets.’

Mrs Badenoch warned that the police in England and Wales are logging tens of thousands of ‘non-crime hate incidents’ each year, often when things are said that are offensive but not criminal, saying she would take ‘whatever steps are necessary to end the recording of non-crime hate incidents’.

Last December the Court of Appeal found that police guidance on hate incidents unlawfully interfered with the right to expression.

Former police officer Henry Miller was visited at work by an officer from Humberside Police in January 2019 after a member of the public complained about his allegedly transphobic tweets. The force recorded the complaint as a non-crime hate incident.

Mr Miller, from Lincolnshire, challenged both Humberside Police’s actions and the College of Policing’s guidance.

A High Court judge ruled in February 2020 that the force’s actions were a ‘disproportionate interference’ with his right to freedom of expression.

In a further ruling in December last year, the Court of Appeal found the guidance also breached his freedom of expression rights.

Mrs Badenoch said that, while the College of Policing has revised the wording of its guidance, it ‘has not put an end to the recording of such incidents’.

Last February, Merseyside Police apologised for wrongly claiming ‘being offensive is an offence’ as part of a campaign to encourage people to report hate crime.

The force came under fire after the message appeared on a billboard in Wirral.

It later clarified that while hate crime is an offence, ‘being offensive is not in itself an offence’.

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