The well-intentioned roots of police recording non-crime hate incidents stem from the 1999 Macpherson report into Stephen Lawrence’s murder in 1993, which found institutional racism in the Metropolitan police. This has today evolved into a system of recording non-crime hate incidents that cover five of the nine protected characteristics in the Equality Act, including transgender identity (but not, bizarrely, sex). Yet there are numerous examples of police forces actively taking political sides in the sex and gender debate. Several police forces pay the LGBT charity Stonewall for advice and training, despite Stonewall’s promotion of a contested political stance on gender identity. Telling the police to record all non-criminal hate incidents or to believe all victims despite their role as investigators are inappropriately blunt approaches that undermine fair and impartial policing.

Source: The Guardian January 02, 2022 20:09 UTC