We want our neighbourhoods to be safe places for everyone. We will not tolerate behaviour that prevents our customers feeling secure in their home and their neighbourhood.
What is hate crime?
Hate crimes are when a victim is targeted because of their membership of a certain social group, usually defined by race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, gender or political affiliation.
A hate crime generally refers to criminal acts which are seen to have been motivated by hatred of one or more of the listed characteristics.
Hate crimes are very serious and we encourage victims to report them to the police. We will offer support and work with other agencies to make sure this behaviour is challenged using the tools and powers that are available to us.
Hate crimes may involve, but are not limited to:
- Physical assault
- Damage to property
- Bullying or harassmet
- Threatening behaviour
- Verbal abuse or insults
- Offensive graffiti
- Offensive letters, emails, messages or online posts
We will apply the same criteria to hate crimes so that if anyone the victim, a witness, the police or our staff – perceives an incident to be a hate crime or racist incident, it will be recorded as such.
Incidents of racial harassment and hate crimes, for monitoring purposes are recorded in such a way to make them easily distinguishable from anti-social behaviour and other forms of harassment. We will work closely with other agencies to prevent and deal with racial harassment and hate crimes.
What can I do if I’ve been a victim or witness of hate crime?
Report it to the police – hate crime is a criminal offence
- In an emergency please call 999
- You can report hate crime online to Lancashire Police Report an Incident - Lancashire Constabulary - Report Online
- If you don’t want to talk to the police or fill in the reporting forms, you can report a hate crime by contacting Crimestoppers: Giving information | Crimestoppers (crimestoppers-uk.org)
Once it has been reported to the police please also contact BCH's ASB and Neighbourhoods team, highlighting the details of the incident, the police incident number and officer’s name. We will then advise you on any action or support that can be taken by us.
If the behaviour has been ongoing, please complete our Incident Report Sheets with dates and times of the incidents and send these to us.