We know that not all hate incidents and crimes are reported to us.

Reporting hate incidents and hate crimes provides valuable information to the police. You may have information that can lead to the identification, arrest and prosecution of an offender. Evidence that a crime has been aggravated by prejudice can lead to an increased sentence at court.

Even if the police are unable to identify the offender in your case, reporting incidents allows the police to understand patterns of offending and hotspots. This enables the police and other organisations to target their resources to help prevent these incidents happening again.

By reporting hate incidents and crimes you may be able to help prevent something similar from happening to someone else.

How can you report hate crime and incidents?

Hate crime can be reported in the same way as any other crime:

• Online using the crime reporting form
• Over the phone
• In person to an officer or at your local police station