Victims of racist, homophobic and transphobic hate crimes encouraged to report it

A plan encouraging people to report hate crimes was approved by members of Brighton and Hove City Council.
Police. Pic Steve RobardsPolice. Pic Steve Robards
Police. Pic Steve Robards

A report with recommendations into tackling hate crimes went before the council’s Neighbourhoods, Inclusion, Communities and Equalities Committee on Monday (January 21).

This was prompted by a presentation in October, by the city’s Racial Harassment Forum, into the results of a survey of 250 people on racially motivated hate crime.

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Short-term solutions approved at the meeting included a campaign to encourage people to report hate crime incidents, working with organisations to support victims and set up drop in and advice sessions.

A service to help people complete a hate incident form is also recommended in partnership with the police and community safety team.

The committee chair, Labour councillor Emma Daniel, said: “Fundamentally our values are that our residents should feel safe when going about their business, going to work, schools or use the library.

“People want to do whatever they want to that is lawful. They need to be able to do so without harassment.

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“It is an important message to send out to people that we believe you and will do all we can to help.”

A long-term recommendation to recruit two advocacy workers to offer support for these communities was identified as a priority in the consultation, particularly Muslim women.

Labour councillor Julie Cattell said that there needed to be sensitivity among different communities.

She highlighted examples in her own experience where people ask for Arabic translation from someone outside their specific community because they are afraid of word spreading.

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Other ideas include developing a project to tackle issues including racism in schools.

Another recommendation included recruiting 10 volunteers to speak to community groups from marginalised communities to build trust and confidence.

So far the council has spent £1,999 from its Communities Fund to part-fund a volunteer programme.

The Racial Harassment Forum has successfully bid for money from Comic Relief and is currently awaiting the result of bids to the Aziz Foundation and Home Office hate crime funding stream.

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Following a motion to the full council in October officers are working on  a glossary of terms or definitions to help those either directly or indirectly affected by, or working to combat, hate crime.

Labour councillor Warren Morgan said: “The thread that runs through this report is ‘report it’.

“It seems reporting is going down but anecdotally, on a national basis, it is not going down.”

He was told that there were growing concerns but that the council had forums for the LGBT and disabled communities, as well as the racial harassment forum, and was looking to see how it could support these communities.

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The council is also working through schools to tackle prejudice at a young age.

This is due to be discussed at the Community Safety Partnership meeting in March.

Recorded hate crimes from April to September 2017 compared with the same period for 2018:

Racist incidents and crimes, 2017: 280, 2018: 277

Religiously-motivated incidents and crimes, 2017: 47, 2018: 35

Homophobic incidents and crimes, 2017: 124, 2018: 119

Transphobic incidents and crimes, 2017: 24, 2018: 26

Disability hate incidents and crimes,2017: 36, 2018: 44