Police probes ‘should not trespass upon free speech’, chiefs told

The comments come as Britain’s top prosecutor reportedly said he ‘had no idea’ what non-crime hate incidents were and ‘had to look them up’ recently, as he cast doubt on their usefulness (Victoria Jones/PA) - (PA Archive)

Police chiefs have been told they are not the “thought police” as the shadow home secretary said officers should only be investigating non-crime hate incidents where there is a “real risk of imminent criminality”.

Chris Philp used a speech at a major policing conference on Wednesday to call for guidelines around the incidents to be rewritten.