Police across 30 forces have wasted thousands of hours reviewing 11,236 ‘hate incidents’, figures have revealed, while crime and violence surge in Britain and the vast majority of robberies go unsolved.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council defended the protocol as “vital” after the 2015-16 figures were revealed, which included such ‘hate incidents’ – acts too trivial to be classed as crimes – as people complaining of barking dogs and of receiving “racist looks” from strangers.

Since the government’s release of an action plan in which success is defined as maximising the number of ‘hate’ complaints, police have proactively solicited reports of such incidents from the public and are required to record and investigate each one by sending an officer or making telephone calls.

According to the Daily Mail, which notes that even just 15 minutes spent looking into each incident would have taken up 3,750 hours of officers’ time, the reports included people offended by newspaper cartoons and a student claiming to have been refused drinks in a bar due to alleged racism.

Such incidents are upgraded to a ‘hate crime’ if a law is found to be broken.

Police Forces Taking Days to Respond to 999 Calls … While Hate Crime Declared a Priority https://t.co/cIzLXmKPGM — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 23, 2018

A “non-conforming-gender-specific lesbian” reported being the victim of a so-called hate incident when a man stood “intimidatingly” close to her wheelchair, while another complainant alleged the barking of a man’s dog was “racist”.

One in 20 of the reported incidents related to posts made on social media, the Mail reports, with one case involving a woman informing police that someone on Facebook had told her she bore a physical resemblance to the character of Peter Griffin from the cartoon Family Guy.

A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman said: “By recording and reviewing reports of hate incidents, police forces play a vital role in helping prevent hate crime.

“Officers can often use these reports as an indication of where and when tensions could escalate into violence. Victims and those feeling vulnerable should report any incident of hate crime to the police.”

London Police No Longer Investigates Minor Crimes, Unless ‘Hate Crime’

https://t.co/Ud8mJMvi8N — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 2, 2018

Last month, a poll revealed concern about crime amongst UK voters to be at its highest level since 2011 — with the issue particularly acute for respondents living in London, where figures show soaring rates of knife and gun violence, theft, burglary, rape, and homicide.

Earlier this year, Breitbart London reported how police forces in Britain are taking days to respond to emergency calls and putting vulnerable persons “at risk”, according to a watchdog report, while officers focus on tackling “hate crime”.

While police claim that rising levels of crime and plummeting arrest rates are the result of budget cuts, forces across the country have been hiring dedicated “hate crime coordinators” and have sent officers touring mosques, colleges, schools, and community centres urging people to report perceived slights to their identity.