What is a hate crime / incident?
Where can you report a hate crime / incident?
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To South Yorkshire Police – if it is an emergency 999; if it isn’t an emergency 101.
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Any of the Hate Incident Reporting Centres across the borough – any library, any adult learning venue, or at a community venue such as ELSH.
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Send an email to the Safer Barnsley Team at safer@barnsley.gov.uk with the word HATE in the subject line.
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Call (01226) 773555.
Why is it important to report a hate crime / incident?
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When you report a hate crime you become part of the movement to stop it. No matter how small or trivial you think the incident might be it is important to the whole community that it is acknowledged and reported.
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Every report builds up a picture of what is really going on in your local area, showing patterns of behaviour against a certain group or by particular individuals.
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The more that local agencies like the Police and Council know the better they can educate, inform and protect everyone in the area.
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Anyone can report a hate crime or hate incident – you can be a witness and report it, you do not have to be the person who is experiencing it to report it. The more information you have the better.
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Hate incidents can escalate to hate crimes and worse, as highlighted by high profile cases such as that of Sophie Lancaster, who was killed by a group of young people in 2007 because of the way she looked - https://www.sophielancasterfoundation.com/