Agenda item

SB gave his work history and explained that he is supporting Gary Ashton to take the lead in developing a Hate Crime strategy.

They have used a National Police Model to tackle Hate Crime –

• information intelligence
• threat assessment
• consider power and policies
• consider options
• act and review

Using this model, the victim is always in the centre.  In order to tackle Hate Crime the Police would like to work in partnership with organisations eg NBC, Fire Services. There is a need to work with the Voluntary and CommunitySector as well as regional and national services.

SB explained the difference between Hate Crime and a Hate Incident:

Hate Crime – where a crime has occurred which has been motivated by hate eg assault.

Hate Incident- there is a situation where no actual crime has taken place. Eg dispute between neighbours. The Police will still get involved if needed but will debate whether other organisations should get involved to provide a better outcome.

The Police have Community Engagement Officers working with minority groups. The focus is around race and religion. However there is not enough resource to work with other groups eg LGBT, Disability groups. County council have engagement officers too and there is a lot of work in statutory  organisations.  Voluntary and Community Sector groups have information too. But there is no flow of information. Need to fill in the gaps. There is no strategy to deal with this.

The Police are now devising a strategy and carrying out a consultation. The strategy will cover 6 strands – race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, transgender and individual characteristic. The latter strand was added following the Sophie Lancaster case.

The impact on victims needs to be assessed. A risk assessment will be carried out for Hate Crime and this will tailor response.

The aims of the strategy are to raise awareness, reduce under reporting, encourage partnership activity, ensure a victim led response, ensure appropriate justice outcomes, prevent through education and build and maintain trust.

There should be a way to report anonymously to obtain a better picture. Victims may want to inform community groups instead and the Police want to open up channels of reporting. Only 1 in 7 victims report. Schools are under no obligation to report Hate Crime. But Police may want to know about the perpetrator.

Northamptonshire is a restorative county, which helps to increase understanding as well as building and maintaining trust.

SB referred to E- CINS and would like organisations to sign up to this.  It is a vehicle to manage Hate Crime incidents.

CM: Community members may ask “Why should we trust you this time?”

SB: The difference this time is that organisation and statutory partners want to work together on this. Police don’t always have to be involved. The organisation can get involved and the problem can be resolved at this stage.

PW: 18 months ago the Hate Crime Unit was disbanded. Now there is a strategy. What level of engagement have Rachel Packman and Nick Stephens had in this as Community Engagement Officers? Have OFBCI and PCC had engagement in this?

SB: Gary Ashton and myself have talked to partners eg Lowdown, Guide Dogs. We  receiving feedback from these organisations. Will also be asking for feedback from an event on 25^th January.

PW: Concern that there is a duplication of work. You need to engage in more diverse communities.

SB: There will be a growing network of champions and want there to be a mix of special constables. A new sergeant role will be created and will be approaching communities.

NM: (spoke as a volunteer) Volunteers already do many tasks and are often busy. They also have work and family commitments. They may not have the capacity to help. At the moment faith groups look to Nick and Rachel for support on Hate Crime as the process is quick and simple. How would you be able to work with the volunteer sector if they already have commitments?

SB: We need to find an easy, effective and simple way for volunteers to work with us, we have found that volunteers are motivated and we need to ask for help.

AM: There is a gap to fill the needs of people with disability and the LGBTQ community. Will the new role  engage with these communities in a similar way that Nick and Rachel are engaging with Diverse Communities?

SB: Yes and will review this. Hate Crime is a huge issue in the LGBTQ sector and want to support this.

ACTION: AM / NM to email consultation.

CM: Advised SB to get in touch with Inspiration FM to reach communities and younger generations.

AM: Worked with Luisa and created a Hate Crime survey.

ACTION: AM to send responses to SB.