The Metropolitan Police has announced a significant shift in its policy, confirming that it will no longer investigate controversial “non-crime hate incidents” (NCHIs). The decision aims to provide a “clearer direction for officers” and resolve what the force described as the “impossible position” it often found itself in, caught between existing laws and the “toxic culture war debates.”

The announcement follows widespread criticism over police resource allocation, most notably sparked by the arrest of Father Ted co-creator and gender-critical campaigner Graham Linehan.

In a statement released on Monday evening, the Met clarified that while such incidents will still be recorded and used as “valuable pieces of intelligence to establish potential patterns of behaviour or criminality,” they will no longer be subject to full criminal investigations. The move is intended to allow officers to focus on cases that meet the threshold for criminal offences, ensuring compliance with statutory guidance while concentrating resources on “criminality and public protection.”

The Linehan Case: A Catalyst for Change

The catalyst for much of this debate was the high-profile arrest of Graham Linehan. In September 2025, Linehan was detained by armed police at Heathrow Airport upon his arrival from Arizona, USA. He was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence over a series of anti-trans tweets.

These included a tweet posted on April 20 suggesting a violent response to trans-identified males entering female-only spaces, and two others on April 19 that expressed strong negative sentiments toward a trans rally, calling participants “misogynists and homophobes.”

Linehan’s arrest drew immediate and furious condemnation from prominent figures. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and X, described Britain as a “police state,” while Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling branded the incident “totalitarian” and “utterly deplorable.”

Politically, reactions were equally strong. Sir James Cleverly called the arrest “a real overreaction” to what he considered “self-evidently a joke,” while shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick described it as “a complete waste of police time.”

Linehan himself reacted with disbelief and anger at the airport, threatening to sue and claiming the stress of the incident led to him being escorted to A&E with dangerously high blood pressure.

Following his arrest, Linehan with the assistance of the Free Speech Union announced that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had dropped the case, meaning he would face no further police action. He expressed his determination to hold the police accountable for what he perceived as an attempt to “silence and suppress gender-critical voices.”

A CPS spokesperson later confirmed that “no further action should be taken” after a careful review of the file submitted by the Metropolitan Police.

A Closer Look at Non-Crime Hate Incidents

The controversy surrounding Linehan’s case brought the broader issue of Non-Crime Hate Incidents into sharp focus. NCHIs are defined as incidents that do not qualify as crimes but are perceived by either the victim or another person to be motivated by hatred toward certain characteristics such as race or gender.

Originally, NCHIs were designed to help police gather intelligence on incidents below the prosecution threshold, particularly those involving alleged racism. However, their application expanded significantly over time, leading to police investigations into complaints against individuals who had lawfully expressed opinions a practice critics say diverts essential resources.

A study by the think-tank Policy Exchange estimated that police forces across the country were dedicating approximately 60,000 hours annually to dealing with NCHIs a major diversion from their “core mission of fighting crime.”

Senior police figures have also voiced concern. Sir Andy Marsh, head of the College of Policing, warned that recording NCHIs had become a “distraction” that undermined public trust. Similarly, Sir Stephen Watson, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, stated that it was easy for the public to assume police had “a weird fetish for chasing stuff on social media,” acknowledging that such perceptions were damaging when compared to failures in basic policing.

Conservative politicians, including Kemi Badenoch, have also weighed in, urging law enforcement to “focus on catching criminals rather than chasing tweets.”

As of July 2025, police had logged over 133,000 non-crime hate incidents, underscoring the scale of the issue — and why the Metropolitan Police’s decision marks a major turning point in the balance between free speech and policing priorities in the UK.