Reporting of hate crime now easier

A SCHEME to make it easier for victims to report hate crimes and incidents will be launched in Oldham tomorrow.

The Third Party Reporting Centres Network will be launched at The Link Centre, Union Street, from 2 to 3pm, by Oldham Race Equality Partnership. (OREP)

It says that due to a large number of hate crimes and incidents going unreported, steps have been put in place to provide victims and witnesses with the ability to report at locations other than at police stations — which is known as third party reporting.

A number of statutory and voluntary agencies have taken part in hate-awareness training to become third party reporting centres.

A hate incident or crime is defined as any incident or criminal offence perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by the perpetrator’s hatred against people due to their sex, race, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation.

An OREP spokesman said: “Third party reporting encourages the reporting of hate incidents by providing appropriate support for the victim through a partnership of relevant agencies and without revealing the victim’s personal details.”

The move also satisfies the requirements of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report, which made clear recommendations to the police to improve their quality of service through investigation, practices, policies, involvement and interaction with the community.

They included that: “All possible steps should be taken by police services at a local level in consultation to encourage the reporting of racist incidents and crimes. In addition the steps should include giving the public the ability to report at locations other than police stations.”