Community safety officials in hate crime appeal

Published Wednesday, 19th June 2019

Residents of Hartlepool who have witnessed or experienced hate crime are being urged to report it.

The appeal has been issued by the Hartlepool Community Safety Team and coincides with World Refugee Day (June 20th).

Jane Munden, Victim Services Officer with the team, said it was feared that a lot of hate crime was going unreported.

“By reporting incidents members of the public can help us build up a clearer picture of the extent of hate crime in Hartlepool and plan an effective response,” she added.

Hate crime is an offence motivated by or which demonstrates hostility towards a victim’s disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity. It includes online, physical or verbal abuse.

Jane added: “The police take hate crime very seriously but they can only do something if they know about it. Victim support is there to help once an offence has been reported and if a case goes to court there are special measures that can be put in place to help the victim.

Hate crime can be reported at a police station or by telephoning 101, 999 in an emergency. It can also be reported online at https://www.met.police.uk/true-vision-report-hate-crime/ or at a number of third party reporting centres. Details of these can be found at https://www.cleveland.police.uk/downloads/TPRC_LatestNov.pdf