The Hate Crime Act could lead to trust in the police being damaged, a police chief warned as the law is set to take effect on Monday.
Chief Superintendent Rob Hay, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS), said the law could be used by those who want to “score points” in online arguments.
Discussing the law on the BBC’s Sunday Show, Mr. Hay said the ASPS was supportive of the objectives of the Act in tackling hatred against protected groups. But the association expressed concerns around police resourcing.
He also said the “febrile” context of online debate could affect the way the law is seen.
“Our concern is that could impact through a huge uplift—potentially in reports—some of those [comments] potentially made in good faith but perhaps not meeting the threshold of the legislation, or potentially in cases where people are trying to actually actively use the legislation to score points against people who sit on the other side of a particularly controversial debate,” he said.
Mr. Hay said a police officer will have to make a judgment on whether the law applies to a reported incident and whether the threshold is met, and warned that members of the public may feel “aggrieved” if their details are kept by police who have received reports of a hate crime, even if they do not pursue prosecution.
“So there are two ways, potentially, that we could damage trust and confidence in the police around whether the police response meets with expectations, and whether the police exceeded themselves in involving themselves in non-criminal matters,” he said, adding that officers would be placed in a “really difficult position.”
The controversial new law, which has been described as “dangerous” by free speech activists and MSPs, creates a new crime of “stirring up of hatred offences” for protected characteristics including “age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, and transgender identity.”
Police have also set up designated “Hate Crime Third Party Reporting Centres,” which include housing associations, victim support offices, voluntary groups, and private businesses, such as fish farms, caravan parks, and even a sex shop in Glasgow.
Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell said the new law will be applied proportionately, promising that its application will uphold people’s freedom of expression.
Earlier in March, she told the force’s oversight body that officers are being trained to apply the law in a “measured way, using their discretion and their common sense.”
On March 21, Katharina Kasper, the chairwoman of the Scottish Police Authority’s complaints and conduct committee, said at a Scottish Police Authority meeting that “credible voices across the judicial sector and human rights organisations” do not consider the legislation’s freedom of speech safeguards sufficient.
First Minister Humza Yousaf has strongly defended the legislation.
Asked about ASPS’s letter at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, he said: “Of course we take seriously what was said by the Scottish Police Federation, ASPS, or any other representative organisation representing police officers.
“But I think it is incumbent on me to say that the new offences in relation to stirring up are hugely important.
He said the stirring up offences for racial hatred have “existed since 1986,” and the government is “simply extending those protections to other groups.”
The first minister also said he is confident in police officers’ ability to deal with vexatious complaints.
Scottish Green minister Patrick Harvie was asked about the ASPS president’s comments when he appeared on the Sunday Show after the police chief.
He said he did not disagree with Mr. Hay, in that the fact that police need to make a judgment on what constitutes a criminal offence is “not new.”
Mr. Harvie claimed that there are “people out there wildly misrepresenting what is in the hate crime legislation, what it will mean.”
“For the most part, they’re trying to drag it into a kind of culture war space,” he asserted.
The tenants’ rights minister hit out at comments from the Conservatives, saying: “I’ve had direct threats of violence as a result of people reading that kind of inflammatory misinformation in the media.”
Owen Evans and PA Media contributed to this report.
