Definition of a Non-Crime Hate Incident
11. A non-crime hate incident (NCHI) means an incident or alleged incident which involves or is alleged to involve an act by a person (‘the subject’) which is perceived by a person other than the subject to be motivated - wholly or partly - by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic.
Amazing. An allegation, based on a perception, is sufficient for the incident to be recorded on the police database.
Caveat: I can see how this came into being. You could report some angry person's racist or fundamentalist diatribes, and this could be recorded as an early warning of potential terrorist action. It gives police a chance to nip things in the bud, and forms part of a pattern of evidence if activity escalates. This is exactly what we want the police to do wrt violent misogynists.
20. The perception of hostility or prejudice by a complainant or any other person alone is not enough, in and of itself, to warrant an NCHI record being made.
Additional Threshold Test for the Recording of Personal Data
21. There are two subsets of NCHI record: those that include personal data of the subject, and those that do not (see paragraph 25). Personal data may only be included in an NCHI record if the event presents a real risk of significant harm to individuals or groups with a particular characteristic(s) and/or a real risk that a future criminal offence may be committed against individuals or groups with a particular characteristic(s).
23. If an incident does not pass this threshold test, but all the other criteria required to record an NCHI are met, an NCHI without personal data may be recorded instead. In these instances, the recording authority should ensure that any personal data that may previously have been recorded on policing systems in relation to the initial incident report is removed.
The Two Subsets of NCHI Records
25. There are two possible subsets of NCHI records:
1. NCHI records that only include non-personal data.
This record may include:
-
locational data of the incident[footnote 14]; and/or
- a general description or overview of the circumstances surrounding the incident which contains no data that could identify any individual(s).
In many cases, this information may be all that is required in order to identify patterns of behaviour, identify incident hot spots, or monitor community tensions.
The most over-zealous rainbow constable could hardly imagine that JKR's plotting a terrorist attack on Willoughby, so presumably his report's been added to a long list of NCHI records mentioning a Scots author on TwitX 🙄
They're all just wasting police time! There's no threat to JKR, but similar reports could cause problems for lesser mortals with nervous employers, or in need of a DBS certificate for example. Basically, the police should be a lot more circumspect about their definitions of 'transphobia'.
Additionally, it's time for sex to be added to the list of protected characteristics - but cue thousands of similarly spurious reports of 'misandry'. The NCHI process isn't useless, but much better training is clearly needed.