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Police officers are “overwhelmed” by the influx of hate crime complaints in the first week of Scotland’s controversial new law.
Thousands of cases have been reported since the bill took effect on Monday, and there are no signs of slowing down.
David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), which represents rank-and-file police officers, said he had heard between 3,000 and 4,000 complaints were received in the first 48 hours.
“They say we’re not slowing down. We’re not giving up. There’s still a lot of information coming in every day, especially when it comes to online forms,” he said. I. “They’re overwhelmed right now.”
Mr Kennedy said officers from Police Scotland’s liaison, command and control unit were already working overtime to scrutinize the huge number of reports.
Other behind-the-scenes staff have also been mobilized to sort out the people’s claims, he added.
The Scottish Government’s new legislation makes it an offense to incite hatred against protected characteristics, including transgender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability and age.
Many of the calls, texts and online forms handed over to police are believed to have been about SNP leader Humza Yousaf, who in 2020 said many of Scotland’s top jobs are held by white people. There was also a statement that emphasized
Some reports have reported on comments JK Rowling made about transgender people in “X”. The author vows to “continue to refer to men as men.”
Police Scotland chiefs have said they will not investigate Ms Yousaf’s speech on systemic racism or Ms Rowling’s recent tweets.
Prime Minister Yousaf insists the new law protects freedom of expression, which has been one of the main concerns of critics. He said the freedom to criticize and offend “exists and should be cherished.”
But police chiefs are concerned that the erroneous perception that comments deemed offensive on social media could constitute a hate crime will continue to cause a chain of complaints. Mr Yousaf urged people not to make “troublesome” complaints.
“We’re hopeful that things will subside to some extent,” Kennedy said. “However, given the nature of the law and the source of the reports (X and the social media uproar), Police Scotland will need to be prepared for a significant number of charges.”
he claimed that The legal training police officers received online was only two hours long and was “insufficient”. He also argued that it was not sufficiently clear what kind of attempts to incite hatred merited investigation.
“There is a risk of a significant backlog of orders.” [of complaints] Under construction. If that happens, a new team will be needed to bring together people trained to understand the law. But the police have not been given any more money. We are 1,000 police officers short of where we need to be. ”
There are also concerns that hate crime investigations could divert front-line police officers from investigating and reporting shoplifting, robbery and other incidents.
“When a hate crime report requires an investigation, officers have to drive out and talk to people and take statements, which means they have less time to do other things,” Kennedy said. Ta.
Scottish Labor said it would not abolish the law but would change it to include special protections for women. Sex is not one of the protected characteristics, but the SNP has vowed to introduce new legislation to tackle misogyny.
Tony Lenehan KC, Scotland’s leading advocate, said: I The high volume of hate crime calls would be a “catastrophe for police resources if this continues.”
The lawyer pointed to figures showing the number of crimes in Scotland where hate was an aggravating factor had remained largely stable over the past decade, at around 5,000 a year.
Before the new law, police and prosecutors could consider whether a crime was “aggravated by bias.” There were 5,738 charges with at least one hate crime element in 2022-2023, a decrease of 2% from the previous year.
“I don’t believe that hate crimes are increasing enough to warrant a forced vote on this bill,” Lenehan said. “You wonder what the purpose of this new law was. My concern was that this was more of a PR effort than an effort to improve criminal justice.”
In addition to the “extraordinary waste” of police time, Lenehan is concerned that “motivated accusers” could “drive police and prosecutors towards trial”. He added: “I am concerned that it will be difficult to avoid an increase in the number of prosecutions.”
Susan Smith, director of For Women Scotland, which opposes failed attempts to introduce gender identity north of the border, said the implementation of the new law was a “chaos”.
“What I worry about is that some police officers may still be more sympathetic to certain things and decide to go ahead and investigate something. , even if no charges are filed, it can still wreak havoc on people’s lives.”
Ms Smith added: [in the law] It leaves room for interpretation. There was not enough clear guidance for police. Police training was terrible. And the message from the Scottish Government and police has been poor. ”
But Scottish Equality Network chief executive Rebecca Crowther said the new law would protect people from “misleading into abusive practices, causing fear and alarm and inciting hatred”.
Adam Tomkins, professor of public law at the University of Glasgow and former Conservative MSP, also believes the new law will work once the initial hysteria subsides.
“We might still be successful if we focus on what the act actually means, rather than what insensitive voices on both the left and the right falsely claim it means.” he said. herald.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said the new laws would “help address the harm caused by hatred and bigotry”. They argued that the law “does not prevent people from expressing controversial, challenging or offensive views.”
Police Scotland declined to comment on the estimated number of reported hate crimes.