- Total reported hate-crime to West-Midlands Police has fallen since January 2011.
- West Midlands accounts for less than 10% of all hate crimes reported in Britain and Wales last year.
- National statistics from the Home Office have revealed that there were 44,480 hate crimes recorded across the UK by the police in 2013-14 – an increase of five per cent on the previous year.
Using police.uk, Birmingham Eastside has gathered data from between January 2011 and January 2015 on each of Birmingham’s ten constituencies to see if there has been a reduction in the amount of anti-social behaviour reported to West Midlands police.
What’s key here is that hate-crime is not actually categorised as a hate crime by West Midlands Police, instead it’s filed under as an anti-social crime. But what exactly is a hate crime? Report-it, an educational website based on hate crime, run by the association of Chief Police Officers describes five area as falling under a hate crime; Disability, Race and/or ethnicity, Religion and/or belief, Sexual orientation and transgender identity.
Pauline Hadley, Regional Manager for Crimestoppers West Midlands, said: “Hate crime is abominable and one incident is too many. We want to stamp this out and we would urge anyone who has information about the perpetrators of this crime to contact us anonymously.”
Anyone with information about hate crime can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or through the Anonymous Online Form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
This article is part of a series of articles by Birmingham Eastside. In the buildup to the May 7th General and Council elections across England, Birmingham Eastside will be publishing a series of articles under the title, #Brumvote, where we will be looking at all the issues affecting Birmingham voters. Don’t forget to follow @Bhameastside and the hashtag #Brumvote on Twitter for all the latest election news.
