Overview
- Sir Mark Rowley is preparing a package of reforms to present to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood within weeks.
- The plan would remove the obligation to record or investigate online complaints where intent to cause real-world harm is not evidenced, restoring officer discretion.
- The proposals are expected to pare back requirements to log non-crime hate incidents, after at least 13,200 were recorded in the year to June 2024.
- Rowley has argued officers should not be drawn into policing toxic culture-war debates and says current rules leave them in an impossible position.
- Ministers have signaled openness to refocusing on street crime, with Wes Streeting backing “policing streets, not tweets,” and Mahmood urging a common-sense approach, though no policy change has been enacted yet.