Kirklees and Coventry point way on hate crime

Now for some good news.

In 2006, Disability Now reported on a new scheme to combat disability hate crime in Yorkshire. Kirklees Safer Communities Partnership opened four dedicated, accessible centres in Batley, Dewsbury and two in Huddersfield. The centres have trained staff who take reports and discuss how to press charges or refer problems to other agencies, such as housing associations. Victims are offered access to counselling services.

These are some of the first “third party” reporting centres for disability hate crime in the UK, and deal with all elements of hate crime – including neighbour disputes, graffiti, arson, threatening behaviour, verbal abuse and bullying. Such crimes quickly escalate in severity. Reporting them early can prevent serious incidents.

Javier Santana-Acosta, the council’s strategic diversity officer, says: “Most complaints have been neighbour disputes and other forms of lower level abuse, such as name-calling, harassment and bricks being thrown through windows. The more serious complaints go straight to the police and become formal investigations.”

Extra cash from the Home Office will be used to train street wardens, social workers and police community support officers to identify potential cases and deal with victims.

Together with improved marketing, this should improve reporting levels. “We are breaking down a historic lack of trust between disabled people and the police,” he says. His centres have taken calls from disabled people living in areas that do not have third party reporting who are unwilling to go to the police.
David Quarmby (no relation), chairman of the Kirklees Disability Rights Network, says: “We have a long way to go. Most disabled people have experienced harassment and abuse that they just shake off and mostly don’t report.” Mr Quarmby is speaking from experience – a few years ago his guide dog was shoved down steps at Dewsbury railway station, causing him to fall too.

Another hate crime project, Havoc, run by people with learning difficulties in Coventry, has worked with West Midlands Police, local companies, the Crown Prosecution Service and Victim Support. It has run drama workshops for people with learning difficulties (pictured) to help them understand their rights if they suffer a hate crime, has produced a training video for the emergency services and holds surgeries for disabled people who have been crime victims.

Denise Stokes, who co-ordinated the three-year project, says that when the group started, “bullying and hate crime were becoming an accepted part of people’s lives – most of the cases are slow and constant niggling, people getting picked on when travelling on public transport, being shouted at and so on”.
“What the police have now found is that hotspots where disabled people are being targeted are also hotspots for homophobic or race attacks. But many disabled people don’t go out as much because they are frightened to do so. They don’t want to put themselves in the firing line.”