Essex Police chief claimed hate speech was one of biggest threats to community

Ben-Julian Harrington, centre, the chief constable of Essex Police
Ben-Julian Harrington, centre, the chief constable of Essex Police, which is facing a backlash from critics over its investigation into Allison Pearson

The chief constable of Essex Police has claimed that hate crime poses one of the greatest threats to the community.

In the force’s four-year crime prevention plan, Ben Julian-Harrington listed it alongside rape, knife crime and child abuse as an offence that put the public at the biggest threat of harm.

His comments have emerged after a Telegraph journalist was allegedly told she was being investigated for a “non-crime hate incident” related to a social media post.

Allison Pearson said two police officers called at her home at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday to tell her she was being investigated over the post on X, formerly Twitter, from a year ago.

Pearson said she was told by one officer that “I was accused of a non-crime hate incident. It was to do with something I had posted on X a year ago. A YEAR ago? Yes. Stirring up racial hatred apparently.”

A year before the police visit, Pearson had been frequently commenting on the October 7 massacre in Israel and the subsequent pro-Palestinian marches in London.

Essex Police said officers had opened an investigation under the Public Order Act 1986 relating to material allegedly “likely or intended to cause racial hatred”.

Police sources indicated that it was being treated as a criminal matter rather than a non-crime hate incident.

In the document, published in 2021, Chief Constable Julian-Harrington said: “Essex Police have identified 14 thematic strands which not only pose the greatest potential threat, harm and risk to our people and communities, but also present the greatest opportunity for prevention.”

As well as hate crime, the other themes included knife crime, rape, child abuse, child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse, drugs, county lines, serious organised crime, fraud, burglary, robbery and cybercrime.

The decision to investigate Pearson has led to a growing backlash from senior politicians and Elon Musk, chief executive of the social media website X.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, Liz Truss, the former prime minister, and Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, have all raised serious concerns about the approach of the force.

Essex county council also commissioned a report this year, which Essex Police contributed to, into hate crime in the area.

One of the “challenges” identified by the report was that the “political landscape in the UK/internationally” has led to “increased hostility” towards some communities.

It said that this was “fuelled by a rise in more mainstream Right-wing politics (the ‘radical Right’) and resulting in an increase in ‘freedom‑restricting harassment’.”

Essex Police and Essex county council were contacted for comment.

The Conservative-controlled council was asked to clarify how it reached the conclusion “mainstream Right-wing politics” had led to increased hostility.

The report found that in 2023-24 there were 3,713 hate crime offences recorded by the force. That was a reduction of nearly 13 per cent from the previous year when 4,256 offences were recorded.

The Essex Police satisfaction survey in 2023-24 found that 2 per cent of people surveyed had been a victim of hate crime in the past two years.

The survey also found that over the last six years, 57 per cent of people who had been a victim of hate crime had reported it to Essex Police.

A spokesman for Essex Police said that the force “cuts crime” and when a crime was reported, “we investigate”.

They added: “There were over 9,000 fewer reported offences in the last year and 20,000 fewer than five years ago.

“Our officers and staff, some of which are military veterans, work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep the public safe and investigate crime.

“We police without fear or favour and when a crime is reported, we investigate.

“That’s what we do and that’s what the people of Essex expect.

“There has been a large amount of false reporting about an ongoing investigation and the force has registered complaints with IPSO [Independent Press Standards Organisation].”