Hate Crime – being targeted or even attacked for who you are – is growing and believed to be massively under-reported.
That’s the situation facing police and the populations they protect in Surrey and across the country.
The bleak overview (stats below) came at the start of a Citizens Advice training day on October 8 organised by Surrey Police with the charity Stop Hate UK. Representatives of local Citizens Advice discussed how hate incidents turn into hate crimes and the main categories of incidents: race, religion, sexuality, disability, trans-gender and alternative sub-culture.
Now, in partnership with Surrey Police and Stop Hate, each CA office will be a ‘Hate Incident Signposting Centre’.
To help solve the under-reporting, anyone who perceives hatred as the motive for an incident is encouraged to report it – that includes victims, friends, families, witnesses and advisers. The partnership is important because it’s known some people prefer not to speak direct to the police.
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Find out more about hate crime and incidents.
Surrey Statistics (Home Office figures)
– The number of hate crimes recorded in Surrey in 2016-17 rose sharply compared with the previous 12 months.
– Home Office figures reveal 1393 hate crime offences recorded by police in 2016-17.
– This is an increase of 979 (42%) on the previous year, one of the largest increases since records for that type of offence began in 2011-12 (but partly reflecting ongoing improvements in crime recording by the police).
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