18
Jul
2014
By Calvin at 09:03 GMT, 11 years ago
Police are launching a new online reporting method as they revamp Hate Incident Reporting Centres in a bid to increase confidence in procedures to hate crime victims.
There are 54 centres across the county which are designed to offer victims of hate crime a safe and comfortable environment in order to report a crime or intelligence.
The Hate Incident Reporting Centres are voluntary centres that will accept reports for any hate crime incident. The centres have been evaluated as places in which individuals feel safe and confident to report hate incidents or information. These include places such as Mencap and community centres.
The centres will have forms in which a person can leave their information. These forms will then go to a Hate Crime Incident Manager (HCIM). There are three HCIMs across the county, one each for North, South and West Cumbria. The HCIMs are Detective Sergeants who are fully trained and experienced in dealing with hate crime incidents.
The centres are a rebrand of the previous Third Party Reporting Centres. Following an evaluation of these centres Police identified that the reporting methods available, although effective, were not sufficient in meeting the needs of victims.
As well as the rebrand, Police have launched a new online method of reporting hate crime incidents and intelligence. This step has been taken in order to offer victims an alternative method of reporting to what has previously been available.
Hate crimes are any crimes that are targeted at a person because of hostility or prejudice towards a person’s disability, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or their transgender identity. A hate crime can be committed against a person or property.
Hate crime is historically under-reported and is a topic that Police continually look for ways in which to provide confidence to all communities that hate incidents will not be tolerated.
Chief Superintendent Steve Johnson said:
“Hate crime can leave a lasting and damaging effect on its victims and it is a crime-type that we regularly evaluate in order to make sure victims have confidence in our procedures to deal with such incidents.
“Part of this is improving and increasing the options a victim has when they want to report a hate crime incident.
“The Hate Incident Reporting Centres and the new online reporting method offer a victim an alternative process to report hate incidents. This is important to us as we appreciate that some may not be comfortable or able to report an incident via the usual method of reporting it on the phone or to a police officer. Hate Incident Reporting Centres provide a useful alternative.
“Hate crime is historically under-reported and offering alternative methods to notify us of such incidents will hopefully bridge the gap to those victims who as yet have not accessed our services and provide confidence that once informed of crime that we will act, investigate and prosecute where possible.”
A list of the locations for the 54 Hate Incident Reporting centres is available at http://www.cumbria.police.uk/advice-and-information/reporting-a-crime/hate-incident-reporting-centres.
To report a hate crime online please visit www.cumbria.police.uk.
