Cambridgeshire adopt a Warwickshire approach and develop independent reporting of 'hate crime' 

Warwickshire offers an online platform called www.reporthatenow.com for people to report hate related crimes and incidents and this provides an alternative reporting solution for victims and/or witnesses of hate crime that may not want to report to the police..

Cambridgeshire are developing various reporting centres for victims of hate crime to independently report to another organisation other than the police in a bid to boost reporting in “harder to reach” communities.

In addition to a place for people to go, 'community champions' have been selected as a point of contact for those who wish to report hate crime, and a campaign will be launched to increase awareness of the already existing online reporting service True Vision which is managed by the police.

March Councillor Jan French is Fenland's 'community champion'.

The idea is that in some cases police involvement may put people off reporting incidents of hate crime, a problem the government is bringing in changes to solve.

The document outlining the proposals noted this is not the first time the idea of independent reporting centres has been tried.

It says: “In 2016, a number of 3rd party reporting centres were set up on non-police premises around the county. However, there was not a coordinated approach to this and as such they have proven to be largely unsuccessful.”

It says more coordination and promotion will be invested this time around.

Assistant Director for Prevention and Enforcement, Rob Hill, who introduced the report to the committee, said the fear of an increase in hate crime at the point the UK leaves the European Union has led to the scheme being accelerated.

Mr Hill said: “This work has become all the more important due to the current Brexit position. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has warned there is a real possibility that exit will trigger a spike in hate crimes. So we are doing this work with that in mind and we have made sure we have time solutions.”

Independant reporting in Warwickshire are managed by a charity called the Equality and Inclusion Partnership (EQuIP).

EQuIP encourage anyone that experiences and/or witnesses a hate crime/incident to always report. You can ring 101 if you suspect unusual behaviour, but always call 999 in an emergency. 

If you do not want to contact the police in Warwickshire, you can report hate crimes/incidents online via the www.reporthatenow.com website, email advice@equipequality.org.uk or if you prefer to speak to someone in person, you can contact EQuIP on 01788 863117.