Ron Hogg, Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham held his first seminar yesterday, attended by partners from across County Durham and Darlington. Reducing the impact of Hate Crime is one of Mr Hogg’s personal priorities which he recently announced in his Police and Crime Plan 2013-17.
Mr Hogg said: “The purpose of hosting this seminar was to identify gaps in service delivery and create a mechanism where organisations can work better together in the future. The ultimate goal is to improve outcomes for the public and to increase confidence for individuals to report these appalling crimes, instead of suffering in silence.”
Approximately 80 repre-sentatives from a broad range of organisations including, public and voluntary sectors, victim services and community groups contributed by giving individual feedback and action points about how they would like Hate Crime services to be improved. The 6 areas covered included Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Race Belief and Faith, Disability, Gypsy Roma Travellers and Learning Disability.
Mr Hogg continued: “The public also needs to be aware that Durham Constabulary will be the next police force to begin recording offences motivated by hatred for members of alternative cultures, such as goths, emos and punks. I believe that correctly recording such incidents as hate crime will be an important forward for County Durham and Darlington.”
Mike Barton, Chief Constable said: “The personal stories we heard from Sylvia Lancaster and another guest speaker were extremely moving and frankly those sort of stories is why I joined policing: to protect the vulnerable, to challenge bullies and to make a difference. This conference has further inspired me to put more effort into these three ambitions. We have got to call time on bullies that pick on vulnerable people just because they are different”.
Volunteers from across the organisations were asked to work together over the coming year in small groups to take the actions forward, to ensure that partners continue to work together to achieve the same goals and to improve confidence for the public. Mr Hogg announced that a follow-up seminar will take place again next year to review how actions have progressed.
