'We were not the Thought Police': Essex Police commissioner defends investigation into Telegraph journalist

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Police Commissioner defends his force's investigation into Telegraph journalist

By Henry Moore

The Essex Police Crime Commissioner has defended his force’s investigation into journalist Allison Pearson.

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Roger Hirst rejected claims his force was acting like the “thought police” as he spoke with LBC’s Lewis Goodall.

It comes after Essex Police visited Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson’s home amid an investigation into alleged incitement to racial hatred.

Writing after the police visit, Pearson said police told her she was being investigated for an alleged “non-crime hate incident” (NCHI) on social media.

However, the force said “at no stage” did it tell Pearson the investigation was for an NCHI.

Mr Hirst told Lewis Goodall: "Well, certainly we don't want thought police in this country. This is absolutely about having a free country, isn't it, really?

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“And there's a tension here between freedom of speech and rule of law. Both of those are absolutely core pillars of our democracy.

“I just think it's perhaps worth bearing in mind though, in my police and crime plan, we don't talk about hate crime, we talk about antisocial behaviour, we talk about drug-driven crime, we talk about violence against women and girls, we talk about neighbourhood crimes.

“But nevertheless we can't go around ignoring crimes just because it's politically sensitive. And we perhaps need to just think about how our black and Asian communities are hearing this debate.

“After all, the 1986 Public Order Act defines this as a crime. And the maximum sentence, the normal measure of crime severity is on the maximum sentence. The maximum sentence is seven years. That puts it up there well ahead of shoplifting and actually ahead of most."

"It is my job to make sure that the police act evenhandedly and we will have no two-tier policing in Essex.

“Everyone's equal under the law and if there is a complaint made, then the police are duty-bound to investigate it.

“I have to say, you know, it's fairly evident, isn't it really, that it's not been treated as a high priority. It's taken a year to actually go and knock on the door. But nevertheless, this. This is something which has to be dealt with by due process.”

In a statement, Essex Police said: “Officers went to a residential address to arrange a time to do an interview with a woman about a complaint made by a member of the public.