Responding to reports that the Government is “scrapping” police recording of “non-crime hate incidents”, director of Big Brother Watch Silkie Carlo said:
“Big Brother Watch and others have fought to defend free speech from ridiculous police “non-crime” speech recording, and our research exposed how previous claims of ‘reform’ actually resulted in police wasting time recording even more lawful speech rather than less. We were pleased that our calls for a review were heard and we welcome the outcome today that “non-crime hate incidents” (NCHIs) will be scrapped, but this must be real reform, not just a rebrand.
“The Government’s claim that the new system will prevent police from recording lawful speech is misleading. The new approach is still designed to deal with lawful speech – otherwise, it would be a crime.
“Given what a disaster NCHIs have been, the public deserves greater clarity and higher standards from the Government. Ministers must introduce the strongest safeguards to ensure police can get on with their jobs and defend rather than undermine freedom of speech in Britain.
While we await the full details, the principle should be simple. Police should only deal with speech where there is a real link to crime, and records of lawful speech should never appear on enhanced criminal record checks.”
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