Hate Crime Awareness Week
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Cleveland Police is once again supporting Hate Crime Awareness Week and the Force will be posting a series of social media messages throughout the week to raise awareness and encourage people to report hate crime.
Hate Crime Awareness Week runs from Saturday 9th to Saturday 16th October.
In Cleveland, there were 150 reported hate crimes in August 2021, compared with 93 in August 2020.
Predominantly, hate crime in Cleveland is related to race or ethnicity, however, there have been recent rises in hate crimes relating to disability, sexual orientation, transgender and religion.
A series of messages across the week from the Force will highlight these issues and encourage victims to report these crimes to police, where they can be thoroughly investigated.
The Force has also seen a number of hate crimes committed within the night time economy, with a number of taxi drivers, takeaway workers and door staff amongst victims of hate crime, whilst simply carrying out their work.
Community Safety Inspector Fay Cole, from Cleveland Police, said: “It is unacceptable that people are abused by others based on their race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, religion, gender identity or for any other reason.
“We have seen people abused whilst simply carrying out their work in the night time economy, such as taxi drivers or door staff, which is also inexcusable.
“During hate crime awareness week, we will be using social media to raise awareness and encouraging people to report hate crime to us. We will thoroughly investigate these crimes, offer victims support and put those individuals who carry out such despicable attacks on others before the courts.
“Our message is that hate crime will not be tolerated. It does not have a place in our society and we want to stamp it out. Please support us in doing this by sharing our messages on social media and reporting hate crime to us.”
Victims of hate crime can report directly to the Force on 101 (always call 999 in an emergency) or to third party reporting centres, where victims can remain anonymous if they wish. Find out more on how to report here: https://www.cleveland.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/hco/hate-crime/how-to-report-hate-crime/
Information can also be passed anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
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