A message from Chief Superintendent Sally Bourner, Solihull Police Commander

For details of your nearest independent hate crime reporting centre, visit the Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (MBC) website.

"I know that many people will be aware of the murder in April 1993 of Stephen Lawrence and of the recent conviction and imprisonment of two men for this most appalling and horrific crime.Over many years, Doreen and Neville Lawrence’s courageous and determined search for the truth and for justice created a legacy that lives on in Stephen’s memory and that has changed the face of policing nationally and locally.

West Midlands Police are committed to tackling hate crime with a focus on four key aspects of service delivery. They are:

• To improve the level of service to hate crime victims
• To remove barriers to reporting hate crime
• To increase the number of offenders brought to justice, and,
• To achieve improved community confidence and satisfaction. 

We are committed to developing understanding and an approach to improving service, satisfaction and confidence through engagement and consultation with victims, support groups and communities most affected by hate crime. There are five key strands to this work led by Chief Inspectors across a number of areas in the West Midlands working with a reference group. Lee Wharmby, a member of my Local Command Team working at Solihull, leads on sexual orientation for the force. The other areas of focus for tackling hate crime are race, religion, disability and gender identity. The aim of each reference group is to reach out to communities; to improve trust and confidence; to improve service and our response to hate crime.

Nationally, levels of hate crime reporting have fallen in recent years. For example, in 2010 a total of 48127 hate crimes were reported - a reduction of 3793 crimes compared to 2009. Reporting levels within the West Midlands reflect the national picture with fluctuating levels of reporting experienced. West Midlands Police has adopted True Vision as the primary third party reporting mechanism. True Vision is a national online reporting website sponsored by the Association of Chief Police Officers.   

Last year, Solihull Police recorded a total of 168 hate crimes with no disability hate crimes. This equates to one every couple of days. Whilst I am not suggesting that there is a wealth of hate-related crime that goes unreported, the fact that the numbers are relatively low and that there were no crimes last year where disability was a motivating factor, leads me to believe that hate crimes currently reported to the police do not fully reflect local people’s experience. There are no significant patterns relating to specific locations or groups in the borough, although I recognize that incidents are under-reported. Together with colleagues and partners, I am committed to increasing accessibility to and confidence in hate crime reporting processes. If crimes aren’t reported they cannot be fully investigated and we all know and believe that victims deserve a professional investigation and where possible, that offenders are brought to justice.

Solihull was the first Local Policing Unit here all hate crimes were investigated by trained investigators. Since June 2011, our investigation team has increased in size to a team of 55 officers. This ensures professionalism and our commitment to a consistently high level of service for all victims of crime including hate crime.
We declare all hate crimes as a ‘critical incident’, namely, ‘any incident where the quality of the response by West Midlands Police is likely to have a significant impact on an individual, a family or a community’.

Every hate crime is flagged up at the earliest opportunity to supervisors and considered at our daily management meeting which is chaired every morning by a member of my Local Command Team.

This level of professionalism and scrutiny gives me confidence as I trust it will you, victims and communities, that we take every report seriously.

So far this year (which started in April 2011), 143 hate crimes have been reported in Solihull of which 52 have been solved (a rate of 36.3% against a milestone of 40%).

To put hate crime into context, the total number of crimes recorded every day across the borough of Solihull average 37. In fact, there were fewer victims of crime across Solihull borough in December 2011 than in any other month in the last decade and total recorded crime has fallen month on month since July 2011. I believe that our borough is safer than ever but we are always striving to improve by working alongside partners to address concerns the public may have and are committed to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour. We will build on our successes to date in order to keep our communities safe and pleasant places to live, work and socialize. And hate crime is an area where we know we can do more together.

Whilst all of us working as police officers, staff and PCSOs with West Midlands Police have a crucial role to play in tackling hate crime, it is not solely the domain of policing. Far from it…hate crime is a matter for us all.

Solihull Partnership has worked closely with colleagues from West Midlands Police to set up an approach to combating hate crime together which is known as ‘Challenging Hatred in our Communities’. The approach that we are launching today gives local people credible alternatives to contacting West Midlands Police directly to report hate crimes and incidents. The third party reporting process places emphasis on providing a supportive environment for victims and signposting West Midlands Police to incidents and crimes. The accreditation process before organizations can be classified as reporting centres promotes investment in time and resources to provide a high quality service. 

Solihull Partnership have taken the lead in this project with support at the highest level and an excellent buy in from all of the groups who have so far volunteered their time and resources to become reporting centres. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to each and every person and every organisation represented here tonight. Each of you can feel proud of the difference that your humanity and professionalism will make to the lives of local people and to our joint work to tackling hate crime across our borough. 

Across the borough, we now have 23 reporting centres. We have agencies such a West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service and many others acting as signposting centres to give every assistance to our communities.

I feel it is testament to the belief and commitment of every person and organisation involved in the Solihull Partnership that we have pulled together to create a way of working that provides new opportunities to help and support vulnerable members of our communities, their families and friends.

There is support for this work at the highest levels including the Mayor of Solihull, local councillors and West Midlands Police Authority.”

For more information on hate crime, visit the main West Midlands Police website.

To find out how to access your nearest independent hate crime reporting centre in Solihull, please visit the Solihull MBC website.