Hate crime victims getting more help

Police are training staff and volunteers at reporting centres in community centres, libraries, housing offices and health centres to deal with hate crime victims.

The initiative aims to encourage people, who may be reluctant to report such crimes to police, to come forward and tell somebody else so that they can be investigated.

More than 30 specialist reporting centres have already been set up across the Bradford district but the aim is to increase that to 50 over the next 18 months.

Inspector Martin Baines, community relations inspector for Bradford police, said victims were using the reporting centres but not in the numbers that had been expected because many people did not know about them.

"Hate crime incidents are under-reported," said Insp Baines. "We need to encourage people to report them so that we can tackle them effectively and deal with the perpetrators."

In the last financial year police dealt with 648 racial crimes and 51 homophobic incidents across the Bradford district. Between the beginning of April and the end of June this year there were 152 race and eight homophobic hate crimes.

Last year the Bradford Hate Crime Alliance was launched, a multi-agency partnership involving police, Bradford Council, the Crown Prosecution Service, housing trusts, Education Bradford and community and voluntary groups, to tackle the problem.

Last month funding was secured for another year to run confidential help-lines for victims of hate crimes.

Insp Baines said the vast majority of such incidents reported were of a lesser nature, usually verbal abuse, nuisance or damage. But they can be more serious like physical assaults or even murder.

Anyone who wants to know how to contact their local reporting centre can ring Mr Parwin Singh on (01274) 786652, or via the website www.hatecrimealliance.co.uk.

The confidential race help-line is 0800 1381625 and 0800 1381628 for the homophobic report number.