Former police chief: Why officers spend too much time on social media posts
Police forces waste thousands of hours yearly dealing with non-criminal hate reports instead of solving serious crimes. A high-ranking ex-officer suggests major changes to the current system
Former Greater Manchester police chief Peter Fahy points out big problems with non-crime hate tracking system. Officers spend way too much time checking social-media posts instead of dealing with real crimes (which takes about 60000 hours per year)
The discussion got hot after Essex Police looked into Allison Pearsonʼs year-old tweet but later dropped the case. Former Met commissioner Lord Hogan-Howe joined the debate: he backs a new think-tank paper that says police should stop recording these non-crime things
Its drawing police into really complex social issues what might be seen as mainstream political comment and its just not appropriate for the police to be drawn into this
The system started after the Stephen Lawrence case but now with social-media everything changed. These days small things get super-big super-fast - and police has to deal with them instead of real crime
A recent check-up showed police dont handle these rules right: they use “if-in-doubt-record“ way too much. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper wants common-sense approach but still thinks its needed for community safety
The ex-chief says we need different fixes - maybe some civil-law stuff instead of police work. He thinks government should make clear rules about whats ok and whats not: “If you report something you have to record it; even if you say it was a load of nonsense“
