Police Scotland is supporting National Hate Crime Awareness Week 2019 which runs from 12 – 19 October:
As part of this week, we are raising awareness of hate crimes and encouraging people to report them. Tackling hate crime is a key priority for us. If you have been a victim of a hate crime, always report it to us. There’s lots of help and support available for you.
The official definition of hate crime is ‘any crime which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated (wholly or partly) by malice and ill-will towards a social group’.
This means that any of us can be a victim of hate crime at any time. Hate crime can happen in many different ways. It could be someone shouting and swearing at you, threatening you or verbally abusing you. It could be offensive graffiti, being physically assaulted or receiving online abuse. So if you are targeted by a person or group of people and you think the reason you have been targeted is because of:
- Disability
- Race
- Religion/Belief
- Sexual Orientation
- Transgender Identity
Then this is a hate crime. There is no excuse for hate crime – if you have been a victim of hate crime or have witnessed it please report it.
How to report a hate crime
Hate crimes are largely unreported to police.
- Police Scotland encourages victims and witnesses of hate crime to report it to police either directly or via one of our Third Party Reporting Centres www.scotland.police.uk/contact-us/hate-crime-and-third-party-reporting/third-party-reporting-centres
- Phone 101 or 999 in an emergency
- Use our online hate crime reporting form (link www.scotland.police.uk/secureforms/hate-crime/) on the Police Scotland website.
- You can visit a police station www.scotland.police.uk/police-stations
- Use ‘Contact Scotland BSL’, (link to contact Scotland page to be used below) Scotland’s British Sign Language interpreting video Relay Service, contactscotland-bsl.org or via ‘Contact 999 by SMS’ text service for Deaf, deafened, hard of hearing and people with speech issues. Please remember that your phone must be registered to use this service.
- Hate Crime can also be reported via the keep safe app. Click on this link for more details. www.iammescotland.co.uk/keep-safe/keep-safe-scotland-app
Why you should report a hate crime
We want everyone living, working and visiting Scotland to feel and be safe. We recognise that hate crime has a huge impact on the quality of life of the individual, their family and friends and the wider community. It is only by reporting hate crime that we can truly tackle the issue and bring perpetrators to justice.
Police Scotland is fully committed to reviewing and investigating all reports of hate crime.
Contact Details
Call 101 for non-emergencies and general enquiries, in an emergency call 999. If you have information about a crime you can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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