Overview
- Leaders of the College of Policing and NPCC have concluded the current regime is no longer fit for purpose and will submit their review to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood next month.
- Ministers are preparing to endorse the shift, according to The Times, though final decisions and any legislative steps will follow once the review is received.
- Under the plan, officers would stop logging these incidents on crime systems, record only the most serious cases as antisocial behaviour, and use a checklist to avoid intervening in trivial online disputes.
- The Metropolitan Police already halted investigations into these incidents in October after the Graham Linehan case, with Commissioner Mark Rowley saying officers should not referee culture-war arguments.
- Key implementation issues include force-wide retraining and the status of historic records, with campaigners pushing Lords amendments to mandate deletion of past entries that can appear on enhanced background checks.