New South Yorkshire Police system to tackle hate crimes welcomed by victims

44 per cent of the vast majority of hate crimes are public order offences, including discrimination and harassment towards gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and religion.

No Suspect is identified in 32 per cent of all hate crimes and a further 40% of cases without victim support to formal action being taken.

In the past, when reports of hate crimes were made they used to go through a system called 'criming' – the process of being recorded as a crime. The criming process would need to be complete before the situation would be allocated to an officer causing an unwanted delay.

Police introduced a new procedure in December 2019, to ensure that hate crime incidents are scheduled for appointments.

This means victims are seen quicker, increasing satisfaction and maximising investigative opportunities.

Early evidence suggests that hate crimes are being addressed quicker.

Assistant Chief Constable, David Hartley, said: "We had a gold review in early Autumn last year discussing victims of hate crimes and found that the service levels there were not what we wanted, it was fragmented and there was little consistency.

"Having implemented the new system we have seen a rise in satisfaction levels reach towards 90 per cent in some areas and towards 100 per cent being recorded in other areas.

"We have now absolutely got consistency across all districts with hate crime coordinators and support from sergeants consisting of personal second day reviews.”