Greater Manchester's New Police Chief

[ScreamingMeMe]

This sounds quite positive. Wants to remain politically impartial, and is concerned about hate crime:

Mr Watson succeeded Ian Hopkins, who stood down in December following a damning watchdog report which revealed the force had failed to properly record 80,000 crimes.

In June he told how he "absolutely would not" take the knee in uniform, believing the gesture could undermine officers' impartiality.

He said the public were "getting a little bit fed up of virtue-signalling police officers" and would "rather we just locked up burglars".

Mr Watson also said he was concerned police could be overwhelmed by the creation of new "hate crimes" which "sought to criminalise what people think about difficult social issues, as opposed to what they do".

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-58246694.amp

I bet Fair Cop are pleased.

The proof will be in the pudding i think.

Problem is, a lot of those 80,000 un-recorded crimes will include these new 'hate crimes' that he is against. He will then be put under pressure from the government to investigate & detect them.

This is marvellous, hope other police forces follow:

Mr Watson also said he was concerned police could be overwhelmed by the creation of new "hate crimes" which "sought to criminalise what people think about difficult social issues, as opposed to what they do".

The police absolutely should investigate hate crimes. It's 'non-crime hate incidents' that they should be ignoring.

@aliasundercover

The police absolutely should investigate hate crimes. It's 'non-crime hate incidents' that they should be ignoring.

Yup. I think that is what he means when he says "criminialising what people think".

It depends what people are thinking and what they are doing with those thoughts.

If they start posting them on social media - when does it cross the line & who's decision is it to say it has?

If they start posting them on social media - when does it cross the line & who's decision is it to say it has?

But in Harry Millard case, it didn’t matter what was on SM, the police wanted to “check your thinking” or words to that effect. That is what the new police chief seems to be against and he’s right.

The point is it’s so easy to record a “non crime, hate crime” because you don’t have to prove anything! Just need someone to say “that person caused me to feel unhappy” and hey presto you have a “crime” investigated and a box ticked.

exactly - this came off the back of the new crime recording standards. A crime is recorded at the point of victim confirmation, unless there is overwhelming evidence to say its hasn't happened.

So, I could phone the police up and say that someone has said/done something that I find harassing - then a crime is recorded.

Which leaves it totally open to abuse by people such as Helen Islan and Stephanie Hayden

Its often difficult for cops on the ground to determine what is and what isn't harassing/alarming/distressing for people.

A car gets scratched by someone - some people are not bothered as they see a car as a means to get you from A to B. Other people, its their pride and joy and its the end of the world. And you can play this out for all sorts of crimes and incidents.

Also, a lot of Chief Constables are so far removed from the front line, they don't understand the pressures that are on the front line cops. Missing from homes, mental health concerns, social service jobs are often preventing them from actually investigation 'true crimes' such as your burglaries etc