There is a need to tackle some 'non-crimes'. For example, those who are plotting some nefarious act of terror before the deed is actually committed - though I personally class that plotting as treasonous behaviour against the citizenry (or their representatives) and thus criminal.
Obviously, that the police and security services do tackle such nonsense so effectively is a mark of competence, professionalism and deserves praise.
I'm talking about non-crimes.
So, speech is not a crime, even if it against the law in this country.
If someone were to say, "i wish there would be a terrorists attack against such and such a target", then that is not a crime.
If someone starts to make physical preparations to commit an attack, then that would be a crime.
Saying, "men cannot change into women", is not a crime, and yet the police are visiting the homes of people who have said that very thing.
There is no such thing as "hate crime", and yet there are hate crime laws.
If there was a "scale of police states" with at one end a state whose police were not politicised, and therefore only tackled crime, and at the other end a state in which the police enforced the will of the government to the extent that non-crimes were tackled, then we would maybe be at 10% or 20%. I don't know what other people think about that.
This can be tested.
In Saudi, if a man were to say in public, "Muhammad was a paedo", then would he be arrested? Yes? Then it's a police state to at least some degree.
In North Korea, can a man say, "Kim Jong Un is a big poopy pants"? No, he can't. It's a police state.
In the UK, can a person say, "men cannot become women and I think Islam is crap so we shouldn't import Muslims"? No? Then we live in a police state to some degree.
If a country wants to create a socialist state, or fascist state, or globalist state, then it necessitates the creation of a police force which is tasked with removing opposition to the plan, because some or most of the people will not support it.
The idealism of the British Government, and that of the EU, is globalism, which is why our police and institutions have been corrupted to facilitate the destruction of the nation in favour of being a province in a larger globalist state.
About 10 people per day in the UK are being arrested for merely saying things.
Perhaps the highest profile case was that of Count Dankula, who was arrested, charged and convicted for making a joke.
He committed no crime, and there was not even a complaint made over his joke. The police had to manufacture a complaint in order to justify the arrest.
There was a young woman in Liverpool who posted some rap lyrics in tribute to a friend who had died.
The police had to get one of their own officers to make the complaint, in order to secure justification for the arrest.
Once a country starts to go down the route of creating a police state, it must be nipped in the bud, because an authoritarian government always wants more power, not less.