It's never too late...end disability hate crime
Northumbria Police’s latest campaign ‘It’s never too late…end disability hate’ aims to increase awareness and reporting of disability hate crime.
The campaign has been launched during Mencap’s Learning Disability Week where a variety of events are being held across the region supporting people with learning disabilities.
Part of the Northumbria campaign involves more than 80 premises across the force area becoming Safe Reporting Centres.
These centres offer an alternative method for people to report incidents or contact police in an environment they feel comfortable and will compliment other reporting schemes such as ARCH and True Vision which offer online and telephone reporting facilities.
The initiative aims to improve everyone’s understanding of what hate crime is and how it is everyone’s responsibility to report incidents – not just those people with disabilities.
Assistant Chief Constable Steve Ashman said: “Northumbria Police recognises everyone’s right to live their life free from harassment and fear of crime.
“We’re committed to protecting the most vulnerable people in our society and tackling disability hate crime.
“We know that for many reasons people don’t always report incidents to the police.
“As part of our commitment we need to ensure people with disabilities have increased support and opportunity to report incidents in a safe and secure environment either to the police or via a third party.
“This campaign will promote Safe Reporting Centres and greater awareness of hate crime, encouraging reporting in the knowledge that police are fully committed to stopping hate crime.”
As well as introducing the centres, police want to encourage relatives, friends and carers of people with disabilities to give support and report any incidents.
Northumbria’s neighbourhood officers have been visiting hundreds of centres with reporting forms and information designed in a variety of formats to raise awareness of hate crime.