Agenda item

Report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships and the Head of Policy and Communications, Office of the Durham Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner

The Chair introduced the Acting Chief Executive, Office of the Durham Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner (OPCVC) who was in attendance to update the Committee on the County Durham and Darlington Hate Crime Action Group (for copy see file of minutes).

The Acting Chief Executive, Office of the Durham Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner informed the committee that the County Durham and Darlington Hate Crime Action Group was set up in 2013 by the Durham Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner to co-ordinate an action plan to target and reduce hate crime.

The Acting Chief Executive, OPCVC advised members of a table within the report that highlighted that hate incidents had increased by 20% since the group was established. He informed the committee that the increased number of cases reported may be due to terrorist acts being published in the media and the reclassification of certain types of anti-social behaviour that were now classed as a crime. 

The Acting Chief Executive, OPCVC notified the committee that the joint plan was launched in October 2018 following a conference that was held in July 2018 that promoted diversity.  The County Durham and Darlington Hate Crime Action Group was a multi-agency partnership that included members from the voluntary sector. 

He noted that the priorities of the action plan focussed on:

·        Multi agency communication - the hate hurt campaign was launched in March 2019 that had been adopted by the police as their brand.  It stated that if hate crime was recognised it should be reported;

·        Review of reporting mechanisms to ensure there were lots of ways in which hate crime could be reported and to identify gaps and put things in place to address them;

·        Shared intelligence to ensure that all information is shared between organisations;

·        Evidence to make sure that files transferred between organisations were done effectively so that cases were not delayed;

·        Support victims to ensure that all victims of hate crime were supported.  There were numerous organisations offering a wide range of support available to victims and a mapping exercise had commenced to address gaps in support.

The Acting Chief Executive, OPCVC informed the committee that future meetings would be arranged to continue the hard work.  He noted that the tension monitoring kit devised by Durham County Council had been used to allow officers in different organisations to identify situations and make others aware of it in other organisations.  He told the committee that data was held on a central database where police and organisations had access to and it was continually monitored. He also noted that a performance monitoring framework would be developed for the joint hate crime action group.

The Chair thanked the Acting Chief Executive, OPCVC and asked members of the committee for any questions or comments.

Councillor D Boyes commented on an increase in hate crime incidents and political changes since 2016.

Councillor P Jopling sought clarification that if a person was called nasty names on social media whether that would be classed as hate crime. 

The Acting Chief Executive, OPCVC informed the committee that this could constitute hate crime and should be reported to the police to investigate. 

Councillor J Maitland requested clarification on what the difference was in terms of hate crime being an incident and a crime. 

The Acting Chief Executive, OPCVC explained that an incident was anything that was reported to the police but was not classed in law as a crime and a crime was anything that was defined in the wording of the law as a crime.

Councillor J Clark commented that there was a list on the Durham County Council’s website that gave a wide range of categories that were now classed in law as hate crime.   Councillor J Clark added that she felt incidents were needed to be reported so the police were aware and could investigate and noted that hate crime was not all stereotypical focused on foreign nationals but could be anyone.

The Acting Chief Executive, Office of the Durham Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner noted that if the victim self-identified the offence as a hate crime then the police would investigate it as that.

Resolved

That the report be noted.