UK Police Overreach

The cluster discusses criticisms of UK police practices, including overzealous surveillance, arrests for offensive speech or social media posts, disdain for crime victims, and neglect of serious crimes in favor of minor offenses.

➡️ Stable 1.1x Politics & Society
2,281
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#279
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2008
4
2009
15
2010
33
2011
38
2012
75
2013
118
2014
76
2015
110
2016
89
2017
124
2018
121
2019
196
2020
150
2021
166
2022
189
2023
203
2024
161
2025
370
2026
43

Keywords

US www.bbc HN TBH ID en.m co.uk SWAT UK NOT uk police arrested crimes policing cops crime tweets offensive restricted

Sample Comments

hackerboos Oct 4, 2013 View on HN

Yes. Some senior police officers here in the UK realise this:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24320717

eptcyka Feb 17, 2021 View on HN

This is how the police operates in the UK too.

noodleman Feb 17, 2023 View on HN

This is almost certainly a UK specific experience. The police here have a track record of treating people who report crimes with disdain.

thu2111 Dec 13, 2020 View on HN

It's not highly restricted. It's a bit more restricted than in the USA and there are plenty of brits that think that's dumb, meaningless and just creates drama whilst simultaneously distracting the police from solving actual crimes.

kennysoona Feb 16, 2025 View on HN

> Because your comments are bad faith.No, they are not. I thought you were done? Why are you still replying just to insult?I'm sorry my view offends you, but unlike you I'm not trying to offend you, it's my honest view and I thin the evidence supports it.If you think I'm an idiot, fine, but could you maybe just stop replying at this point instead of violating HN guidelines just to let me know? I'm down to have a civil discussion, but that clearly isn&#

skippyboxedhero May 26, 2025 View on HN

The person in question did not say the latter. You have, presumably deliberately, decontextualized it. She said roughly what you said followed by "for all I care", and she also deleted the post a few minutes after.(What some people may not understand: UK police are running a dragnet online now, it is unclear when this started but was in full force after Covid, you can post and immediately delete, you can post with five followers...they will find it, and will attempt to prosecute. Pe

chiph Jan 15, 2014 View on HN

This was in the UK. They don't have Miranda warnings or protection against self-incrimination.

PrinceKropotkin Oct 27, 2020 View on HN

I can just google "london police harassment" and see plenty of evidence the UK has issues with policing.

kypro Jul 8, 2022 View on HN

It never ceases to amaze me how comfortable people here in the UK are with state-funded busy-bodies filming and monitoring them 24/7.It's gotten so bad that if I were to write some offensive rap lyrics here I could be visited by the police to "check my thinking", or worse I could prosecuted. This applies regardless of whether I've actually offended anyone, if the state feel what I said could hypothetical be considered offensive then it's illegal. Similarly, if yo

bryanlarsen Mar 16, 2016 View on HN

British cops do that quite regularly.