Britain’s most senior police officer is preparing proposals to stop officers being drawn into policing tweets and online disputes, it has been reported.
Sir Mark Rowley, sommissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is drawing up reforms with senior colleagues that would give officers more discretion to use “common sense” when deciding whether to record or investigate complaints about online posts.
He wants Shabana Mahmood, the new home secretary, to alter the rules “within weeks” so that police are not obliged to pursue cases where there is no evidence the suspect intended real-world harm, sources told The Telegraph.
The changes could also reduce requirements for officers to log so-called non-crime hate incidents, which include situations where behaviour is not criminal but is perceived to be motivated by prejudice.
The review follows controversy over the arrest of comedy writer Graham Linehan at Heathrow last week over posts he made about trans people.
Nigel Farage has made the issue a key argument for his party, Reform UK. At the party conference last week, he said Reform would “police the streets and not the tweets”.
After Mr Linehan’s arrest, health secretary Wes Streeting said that the government wants to see people being kept safe by “policing streets, not just policing tweets” and suggested legislation could be looked at if the law was “not getting the balance right” on free speech.
Ms Mahmood has already indicated she supports a more pragmatic approach. Speaking to a Lords Committee last week, she said police must guard against “over-reach” and “needed to focus on the day job” of tackling “crime in our communities.”
Asked about the concern that officers were spending more time on tweets than on crime, she told the Lords constitution committee: “The police need to focus on the day job and maintaining public confidence for crime in our communities.
“That isn’t to take away from the fact that you can’t commit an offence online,” she said, referring to the difference between inciting violence compared to cases “in the more humour sense end of the spectrum”.
She added: “We should be clear that you know, social media is not a sort of a free hit when it comes to breaking the laws of our land, but we have to be absolutely sure that what we do is in accordance with the laws of our land is and is not over-reach either, and that the line is held in the right place and I think that’s what, in the end, maintains public confidence.”
A police source told The Telegraph that rules originally designed to protect vulnerable people were now “tying officers’ hands” and eroding discretion. They added that work was under way to develop proposals for reform that could be ready in weeks.
More than 13,200 non-crime hate incidents were recorded by police in the 12 months to June 2024, despite updated guidance stating officers should only log them when “absolutely necessary and proportionate” rather than simply because someone is offended.
