Non-Crime Hate Incidents (771A/23)
Request
1) How many non-crime hate incidents have been recorded by your force in the 2022 calendar year?
NOTE: I understand non-crime hate incidents are recorded through the ‘Hate Crime
Operational Guidance (HCOG)’ issued by the College of Policing. According to the guidance, a
non-crime hate incident is an incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to
be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards one of the following: disability; race; religion;
transgender identity and sexual orientation.
2) In relation to the non-crime hate incidents recorded in 2022 please provide a breakdown by the hate motivation? Please provide this using the categories you use for this task, however, I would expect that some or all of the following would be included: Alternative subculture, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender, anti-Semitic, asylum seeker/refugee, gypsy/traveller, Islamophobic and migrant worker.
3) In relation to all non-crime hate incidents that were logged by your force in the
calendar month of September 2022 could you please provide me with (i) the exact nature of the
actions or exact words used, (ii) where it was carried out (either a location such as school,
workplace, street etc, or a specific social media platform/internet, and (iii) the age of the
perpetrator if known.
NOTE: In Question 3 I am content for any details to be redacted so that the identity of the
victim and perpetrator are not disclosed, but I would like as much detail about the
circumstances of the incident as possible.
Response
Please find attached our response. Please note, although I have been able to provide some of the requested information, anonymised crime reports are not routinely made available. This is because the Modus Operandis (MO) contain personal information and details pertaining to any relevant investigation and therefore exemptions would apply. In the case of NCHIs, the amount of redaction necessary to remove exempt information and anonymise any remaining information would render the information void of detail to the point of being unusable.
Additionally, the force operates under the Police Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Behaviour. This includes challenging discriminatory actions and behaving in a manner that does not bring discredit on the police service or undermine public confidence in policing. We trust our people to act with integrity and protect individuals from abuse so that confidence in the police service is secured and maintained. Our staff treat members of the public and colleagues with dignity, respect and courtesy, and do not use inappropriate language or that which is offensive or is likely to cause offence.
It is for these reasons, in addition to the exemptions that would apply, that it would be inappropriate to release any racist, sexist or vulgar words or phrases alleged to have been used. Provision of these words would also not enhance the disclosure or be a benefit to the general public.
Please note that these data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently, statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.