‘There Is No Such Thing as a Thought Crime,’ Watchdog Tells UK Police

Police watch an Anti Austerity demonstration at the Bank of England in London, on June 20, 2015. Zak Kaczmarek/Getty Images

Police forces should stop declaring certain thoughts are crimes, the UK’s police watchdog has warned, stressing that “thought crimes” do not exist in the country’s legal system.

Sir Tom Winsor, the outgoing chief inspector of constabulary, said that chief constables cannot “declare something that is not a crime to be a crime” in their force area, as “it is not illegal to think anything.”