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Civilians to aid hate-crime work
Support network for victims nervous of reporting to police Mark Branagan VICTIMS of hate crimes who are worried about going to the police can report offences to "civilians" under a new scheme in North Yorkshire – where recent figures showed racist incidents had risen by more than a quarter.
Rather than walk into a police station, Scarborough residents who have suffered because of prejudice can take their concerns to local schools, housing offices, and other familiar places.
Resort police have teamed up with community agencies to establish a reporting network for offences related to racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination.
The scheme began as a pilot a year ago but has now been formally set up by the Scarborough team who hope it could become a model for North Yorkshire.
Community safety officer Sgt Jacqui Raynor said: "It is not a national initiative. This is very much a local scheme. Rather than ring a national telephone number this uses people and places which are familiar in the area."
Police would still prefer that victims of such crimes come straight to them, but they are concerned that some offences may be going unreported because of a reluctance by some victims to deal directly with regular officers.
Under the new system, staff working for a range of community organisations and services had been trained to help crime victims fill in a form, which can then be forwarded to Sgt Raynor and her colleagues.
The new service will also enable the public to provide information about crime hotspots and regular incidents of anti-social behaviour without giving their names. If they do not want to speak to anyone at all, they can simply leave an anonymous note.
So far 28 organisations have received training to take part in the scheme, including community education workers in schools, housing agencies and community mental health team members.
Teachers and housing officers will be among those helping people fill in the forms. Sgt Raynor said police were not responding to a direct increase in such crimes, but wanted to be proactive.
She added: "Some people do not want to report things to police for personal reasons, or because they are frightened – too frightened to walk in the front door of a police station.
This is another avenue for them to report a crime."
Although other parts of the country have similar schemes this would be new for North Yorkshire and Sgt Raynor hopes it could be rolled out countywide.
As well as the 28 reporting centres, a local hotline has been set up for hate crimes on 01723 232326. Although not many hate crimes had been recorded in Scarborough, the new system should reveal if offences are going unreported.
For North Yorkshire as a whole, figures released in April pointed to a 26 per cent increase in racist incidents in 2004-05.
There were 191 racist incidents reported to police in the county between April 2004 and April 2005, compared with 151 the previous year.
But police say the actual number of race related incidents in the county is still one of the lowest in the country.
The Crown Prosecution Service has said it dealt
with a rising number of racially-motivated crimes
in North Yorkshire during 2005, but several cases
collapsed because witnesses remained too frightened to give evidence.
mark.branagan@ypn.co.uk
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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