According to an inspectorate report on hate crime and police response to it, some forces have incorrectly flagged hate incidents and crimes; do not gather comprehensive data about hate crime victims, provide enough information to the victims; or consistently refer hate them to support services. Nor were some police gathering enough intelligence about hate crime. Police forces have worked hard to raise the awareness of hate crime among staff, but training needs to be consistent.
The report said for example that more work needs to take place to understand online hate crime. Gwent Police recently introduced a ‘cyber CSO’. Only 16 of the 43 forces said that they examined websites (for example, social media sites) where hate incidents or crimes might happen. And 14 of those 16 weren’t done regularly, but in response to high-profile incidents or when community tensions were raised. Also, many online ‘scans’ were because of hate incidents or crimes occurring on the force’s own social media pages. The inspectors admitted that police forces’ approach to digital crime has been ‘inconsistent’.
A report was commissioned by then Home Secretary, Theresa May, in 2016. HMICFRS (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services) took data from all 43 police forces in England and Wales, and carried out more detailed fieldwork in six forces.
HMI Wendy Williams, who led the inspection, a first on the subject, said: “Hate crime is personal and pervasive; and the police frequently only have just one chance to identify it. If the victim is given the right support further offending can be prevented, and a force and national picture of hate crime can be built, allowing wider preventative activity.
“Ultimately, confidence in the police and community cohesion can be strengthened by one well-placed question to a victim about why the perpetrator acted as they did; or weakened by a missed opportunity to properly record that someone was victimised because of their personal circumstances.
“We found many examples of individual police officers and staff dealing professionally, sensitively and effectively with victims. We also found positive practice in the approach of the forces we visited, but this tended to be as a result of the dedication of specific teams or individuals. We need such good practice to be consistent, both within forces and across all forces.
“We make some recommendations our report, aimed at improving systems and processes. But most are about police forces supporting their officers and staff so that they have the skills, confidence and professional curiosity to talk to victims and witnesses about all the facts and circumstances of a case.”
To read the 117-page report visit https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/.
Comments
At the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, Hardyal Dhindsa, the APCC Lead on Hate Crime, said: “Crimes motivated by hate and prejudice are extremely damaging, for both victims and for the fabric of our communities. I welcome this report for identifying both current good practice in forces to combat this crime type, and the next steps we must take.”
And National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead on Hate Crime, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, said: “Hate crime has been a priority for the police for many years and our response is amongst the best in the world. HMICFRS’s recommendations will help us to address inconsistencies around the country and provide a more effective response to victims. We will look carefully at the response times to victims.
“We will also look at whether the innovative approaches inspectors found working so well in some parts of the country could be replicated.
“No one should have to suffer hate crime and we would encourage all victims to report hate crimes to the police by calling 101 or online through our True Vision website, at www.report-it.org.uk.”
