A new report by the Free Speech Union suggests that British Police are not adequately trained on the importance of free speech. The report, titled “The Urgent Need to Teach Police About Free Speech,” claims that police training is influenced by critical social justice ideology and that there is a “deficiency in the way the police are trained on free speech issues”. The Free Speech Union, founded by the associate editor of The Spectator Toby Young, advocates for defenders of free speech in England and Scotland. The study found that 78 percent of police forces who responded are not providing any training or inadequate training on Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, which outlines freedom of expression, due to a lack of information. The report also highlighted several cases where the police failed to consider freedom of speech, including two wrongful arrests of a female Christian evangelist and the visiting of homes by officers investigating hate crime reports related to “untoward about paedophiles” and offensive memes on social media.
Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is “inextricably embedded” in police training, according to the report, and 50 percent of surveyed police forces collaborate with at least one third-party provider to deliver EDI training. The report details that some EDI training companies teach critical social justice ideologies such as Critical Race Theory and Gender Identity Ideology as if they were facts. The police involvement with LGBT lobby group Stonewall, which offers training on “micro-incivilities,” different “lived experiences,” and “how to be a straight ally,” was also found to be declining. The influence of police’s LGBT+ Staff Networks on EDI training was also found to be shrouded in secrecy. The Free Speech Union suggested that the government should rebalance police training, with more focus on Article 10 and less on EDI, particularly when delivered by questionable third-party organisations, to address the “free speech crisis in British policing”.