Agenda item

The Head of Community Safety and Protection will give a presentation updating Members on community cohesion and hate crime in the city.  The Commission is recommended to receive the presentation and pass comments to the Head of Community Safety and Protection.

A resolution on this matter passed at the Council meeting held on 14 June 2018 is attached for information.

A presentation on the approach to hate crime was given by Inspector Jim Smallman from Leicestershire Police, the City Council’s Head of Community Safety & Protection and the City Council’s Community Co-ordinator responsible for work relating to counter-extremism.  A copy of the presentation is attached at the end of these minutes for information.

Attention was drawn to the following points during the presentation:

·           There was a difference between hate incidents and hate crime;

·           The City Council did not work in isolation on this, but linked with partners, in order to identify and use best practice;

·           Feedback was sought from victims in order to see how they dealt with the incidents and crimes and their outcomes.  Through this is was hoped to improve the experience of users of services on offer and increase satisfaction with those services;

·           Hate crime and incidents could be reported in a number of ways, but past approaches had not always been very successful.  It therefore was proposed to introduce reporting centres.  A key priority was the need to increase awareness of hate incidents and crimes and it was hoped that the introduction of reporting centres would help achieve this; and

·           An action plan had been developed in conjunction with partners, based on the resolution passed at the Council meeting held on 14 June 2018, (minute 11.3, “Community Cohesion & Hate Crime”, referred).  This plan had been shared with the Safer Leicester Partnership, which had approved it in November 2018.

In response to Member queries, Inspector Smallman confirmed that a hate incident was something that anyone perceived as hate.  For it to be classed as a hate crime, the action had to include criminal activity. 

It was noted that unfortunately some people saw hate incidents and crimes as normal, so did not report them.  Increased levels of communication therefore were needed to reinforce the message that hate incidents and crimes were not normal.  This could include information on what the outcomes could be when incidents and crimes were reported.  Improved reporting also would be useful to help identify patterns of incidents and crimes.  Members suggested that Ward Councillors could be approached to help identify local organisations or groups who could assist with this.

It was noted that when a victim reported an incident or crime, “qualifiers” such as religion or race were recorded based on what the individual said or the circumstances of the case.  These qualifiers had been developed locally, but a national report was being prepared that would set out whether more, or different, categories were needed.

Some concern was expressed about how hate incidents or crimes would be reported in the workplace.  People would not usually be able to leave their work place to report something and if reports had to be made through line management they could be in the position of having to report things to the person creating the situation(s). 

Concerns also were expressed that hate incidents and crimes could increase when the United Kingdom left the European Union, as there had been an increase at the time of the referendum on leaving.  Inspector Smallman advised that specific preparations were not being made for when the United Kingdom left the European Union, as dealing with this type of increase was embedded in the work already being done, (for example, through resilience forums).  Statistics on the level of any increase at the time of the referendum could be obtained if required.

AGREED:

1)    That the Head of Community Safety and Protection be asked to circulate the Leicester Leicestershire and Rutland Hate Action Plan to all members of this Commission as soon as possible;

2)    That all members of this Commission be asked to pass comments on the Leicester Leicestershire and Rutland Hate Action Plan to the Head of Community Safety and Protection in time for inclusion in the report detailed in 3) below;

3)    That the Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services be asked to provide a report for the next meeting of the Commission on the Leicester Leicestershire and Rutland Hate Action Plan, this report to include:

a)     any comments on the Plan provided by members of the Commission;

b)     information on which communities make the highest number of reports of hate crimes and incidents and which are not making such reports; and

c)     consideration of how a wider range of community groups can be encouraged to access resources available through the ‘Building a Stronger Britain Together’ programme; and

4)    That Leicestershire Police be asked to:

a)     circulate statistics on any change in reported levels of hate incidents and crimes at the time of the referendum on whether the United Kingdom should leave the European Union to members of this Commission;

b)     share information on the resources available for projects to counter hate crime with groups and/or organisations in the city, including those at grass-roots level, that could benefit from such support; and

c)     provide statistics to members of the Commission on how levels of hate incidents and crime in Leicester compare to national levels.