Hate crime policy statement

Introduction

North Tyneside Council is committed to eliminating all forms of discrimination and to championing equality and promoting inclusion. As part of the Safer North Tyneside Partnership, it is also committed to safeguarding people in North Tyneside’s communities from hate crime.

North Tyneside Council recognises the seriousness of hate crime and hate incidents in all their forms and their impact on the victims, witnesses and wider community and will not tolerate any form of hate crime or hate incident. Everyone who lives, works or visits North Tyneside has the right to be treated with dignity and respect and to live without fear or discrimination.

Policy Statement Aims

North Tyneside Council is committed to

safeguarding its employees, customers and residents from hate crime and hate incidents
raising awareness of, and education about, hate crime and incidents
improving how reports of hate crime and hate incidents can be made
working both internally and externally with all key partners to prevent the occurrence of hate crime and hate incidents
working with schools and other organisations to raise awareness of hate crime and incidents with children and young people
where hate crime or incidents do occur, ensuring that victims and witnesses have access to the support they need

Policy Statement Scope

A hate crime is any criminal offence perceived by the victim or someone else to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s protected characteristic of:

Race
Religion
Disability
Sexual orientation
Transgender identity

Additionally, whilst not recognised nationally, Northumbria Police records crimes based on gender or age as hate crimes, so this is included within the scope of this policy statement.

A hate incident is any incident that is perceived by the victim or someone else to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on one of the above perceived characteristics, but which may not constitute a criminal offence or result in a conviction. The hate crime or incident does not have to be directed towards a person e.g., an empty house could be vandalised with racist graffiti.

Some of the types of behaviour which could be classed as hate crimes include:

verbal abuse
threatening or abusive behaviour towards any person
harassment
damage or threats of damage to property (including arson);
writing threatening, abusive or insulting messages by letter, graffiti or on social media
distributing and or displaying racist leaflets, posters or notifications and posts on social media (Twitter, Facebook etc.)
physical assault
jokes/’banter’
malicious phone calls or text messages
bullying at school/college or in the workplace.

It is important to note that perception is crucial with hate crimes and incidents, if one person perceives it to be hate related it can be recorded as such, this does not have to be the victim, it may be the police or a witness. Proof is not required to report it, the police will still investigate, and it will allow the police to monitor any trends in hate related crimes and incidents.