Labour-controlled Hackney Borough Council is sending uniformed ‘Enforcement Officers’ to mosques to encourage them to report “hate crimes”.

“Our enforcement officers are visiting mosques today to speak to residents about hate crime concerns,” the London municipal authority announced on its Twitter feed.

“If you face anti-Muslim hate, report it to @TellMamaUK and always dial 999 in an emergency,” it added, concluding on a ‘#WeStandTogether’ hashtag.

Tell MAMA is a controversial organisation which has received significant government funding — three payments all topping £45,000 in 2015 — and has previously denied any connection between Muslim communities and grooming gangs, and claimed “events such as the EU referendum and popular debates around immigration and terrorism play into mainstream xenophobic, racist and anti-Muslim sentiment”.

It briefly lost state funding in 2013 after it was found to have “exaggerated” a “sustained wave of attacks” against Muslims in Britain after radical Islamic terrorists murdered off-duty soldier Lee Rigby in the street.

Fifty-seven per cent of the anti-Muslim “attacks” the group reported turned out to have taken place online — mostly negative remarks on Facebook and Twitter — while another 16 per cent were unverified.

https://twitter.com/hackneycouncil/status/981126469371027456

Hackney Borough Council is currently advertising for more ‘Enforcement Officers’, offering between £31,953 and £33,627 for a 36-hour work week in “London’s most diverse and dynamic borough”.

The vacancy advert tells applicants they “will provide a visible uniformed presence across the borough and also be deployed on an area basis to understand and address localised problems, challenging and changing behaviours to contribute to the achievement of the Mayor’s priorities [and the] Council’s corporate objectives”.

This will involve “undertaking enforcement action … which may include but not be limited to the issuing of formal notices, fixed penalties, cautions and prosecution action”.

The description leaves the impression that ‘Enforcement Officers’ function as something like a private police and prosecution service for the Council and Hackney mayor Philip Glanville, an admirer of Ken Livingstone who has made ‘hate crime’ a personal priority throughout his political career.

Totally priceless coverage on Sky, journos seem to have no clue, but Michael White and Ken Livingstone amazing. Really hate Fraser Nelson. — PhilipGlanville (@PhilipGlanville) June 5, 2009

Indeed, with the starting salary for police constables in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland standing at between £19,971 and £23,124 — and only slightly higher in Scotland, at £24,204 — Hackney ‘Enforcement Officers’ are actually being offered significantly greater remuneration than regular law enforcement.

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery