All Wales Hate Crime Campaign launched: Hate Crime is wrong: Report it
Today South Wales Police joined with Gwent, Dyfed Powys and North Wales Police forces to launch a campaign aimed at encouraging the reporting and awareness of hate crimes and incidents.
The message is simple “Hate Crime is wrong: Report It”.
A hate crime is any crime that is targeted at a person because of hostility or prejudice towards that person due their disability, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or transgender identity.
Assistant Chief Constable Jon Stratford from South Wales Police said: “Reports of hate crime to us have increased which we believe is an indication that individuals feel more confident about reporting such incidents to us. However we know that hate crime is significantly under reported and that this the main focus of this year’s campaign.
“There are a number of reasons why this type of crime goes unreported – from fear of reprisals, a lack of confidence in the system, or even a lack of understanding that a crime has been committed. This campaign will hopefully focus people’s minds on what a hate crime is and how they, as a fellow citizen, need to speak up and report this kind of behaviour.
“Reporting Hate Crime is one way of ensuring that further incidents are prevented and offenders are brought to justice. We want to encourage people, whether they are victims of a hate crime or witnesses to a hate crime incident, to report it to us.
ACC Stratford continued: “As a Police Force we are fully committed to playing our role in preventing such hate crimes occurring.
“The messaging is clear and simple – hate crime is wrong, no one deserves it and no deserves to get away with it: to stop hate crime, report it.”
The Welsh Government has funded the campaign and is working with South Wales Police, Victim Support and True Vision with the collective goal of encouraging both victims and witnesses of hate crime to report it.
Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Sophie Howe added: “South Wales is becoming more and more diverse with many minority communities making Wales their home and it is important that we raise awareness about how to report hate crime. There are often very practical challenges, for example language barriers, so it’s important that we work with communities to build confidence, and encourage victims of these kind of crimes to come forward and report them, as well as being able to offer them advice and support.
“Reporting a hate crime or incident is important. South Wales Police has been working with a range of partners to encourage victims of any hate crime to report their experience to police. If the police don’t know about it they can’t help or try to stop it happening again. The police require as much information from the public as possible so that our response is as effective as possible.
“We would also encourage people in the community to tell the police what they know about hate crime in their area. It is important that reporting takes place when an incident occurs. For anyone who may be a witness to a hate crime incident we would encourage you to play an active part in reporting the incident so that such crimes can be brought before courts and successful prosecutions secured.
Reports of Hate Crime can be called in anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or through 101.
