​Are we not just making crime investigation more difficult? - Susan Dalgety

When is a crime not a crime? At the same time as Police Scotland announced it is going to cut back on the number of crimes it investigates, the force is gearing up to handle reports of a new category of offence which goes live on April Fool’s Day.

​On 1 April, the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act comes into force. It creates a new crime of stirring up hate against people on the basis of their age, disability, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity, and incorporates existing laws on racial hatred.

At the same time, the national force has announced it will no longer investigate every minor crime, moving to a model of “proportionate investigation” to free up an additional 136,000 officer hours.

Senior officers brushed aside concerns that this is a money-saving exercise. “All crime matters to Police Scotland,” said Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond, adding, “This isn’t about saving money.”

She may well be right, because every hour saved by not investigating stolen property could now be spent following up accusations of hatred against men who cross-dress or hostility towards grumpy old folk – a ‘crime’ I am very familiar with, it has to be said.

Critics of the new legislation argue that it puts free speech at risk. And worryingly, a few days ago the police officers’ trade union warned that innocent people might end up being charged for a crime they did not commit because the law is so difficult to interpret.

David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), told the Scotsman that Police Scotland will be inundated with people wanting to report a hate crime, yet officers have not been properly trained in how to handle the new law.

He said, “We could end up with people being charged who should not be charged because people do not understand the law.

"We are asking officers to police a law that they are unprepared for. And that’s where mistakes will happen.”

There is another opportunity for this to go pear-shaped. Police Scotland has drawn up a list of third party reporting centres where people can report a hate crime if they do not feel “comfortable” going directly to the police.

The concept of reporting a hate crime through a third party such as Victim Support Scotland is not a new one. But Police Scotland appears to have beefed up this novel approach to cracking crime – there are now more than 400 centres across Scotland, with 32 in Edinburgh alone.

Organisations ranging from a GP practice in Stockbridge to a mushroom farm in East Lothian are advertised as having “specially trained” staff to provide support in submitting a report of hate crime on a victim’s or witness’s behalf.

Our family was recently the victim of crime. My grandson’s much loved, and pretty expensive, mountain bike was stolen from outside our flat.

He reported the theft to the police, believing in his teenage naivety that it would be investigated. He got a message a few weeks later telling him the case was closed.

Perhaps his mistake was going directly to Police Scotland. As the advert goes, he should have gone to his nearest third party reporting centre.