Hate crimes and incidents
Crimes committed against someone because of their disability, transgender-identity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation are hate crimes and should be reported to the police.
Hate crimes can include:
- Threatening behaviour
- Assault
- Robbery
- Damage to property
- Inciting others to commit hate crimes
- Harassment.
Report hate crime
- You can report hate crime to the police online.
- If you or someone else is in immediate danger, phone the police on 999.
- Please also contact us and talk to an anti-social behaviour investigator for help and support. We take hate crime very seriously, and within 24 hours of receiving your call, we'll contact you to arrange to meet you at your home or somewhere else you feel safe. Our service standards explain what you can expect from us.
If your home has been damaged we will attend to emergency repairs and offensive graffiti within 24 hours.
Hate incidents
If the event you experienced wasn't a crime, it may still be classed as a hate incident. If that's the case, we can investigate it for you, rather than the police. (Though we may still advise you to contact the police, especially if the incident is one of a series of events.) If you believe you have been abused or targeted because of your disability, transgender-identity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation, that's how we will treat the incident.
The Citizens Advice website has useful advice on hate crime and hate incidents.
